Max Verstappen’s F1 title bid boosted by Red Bull upgrades for Mexico City GP
A few tweaks on the Red Bull for this weekend’s Mexico City Grand Prix
Red Bull have made a number of tweaks to the RB21 for this weekend’s Mexico City Grand Prix.
Max Verstappen has moved back into F1 title contention after winning three of the last four races.
The Dutchman is now just 40 points behind Oscar Piastri with five rounds to go.
Red Bull’s upgrade package for the Italian Grand Prix seemed to transform their season.
Verstappen won at Monza and then in Baku.
However, there was still some scepticism around Red Bull’s performance, given both tracks were low downforce circuits, which don’t suit McLaren.
Verstappen finished second to Mercedes’ George Russell in Singapore.
The four-time world champion also took pole at COTA and converted it into victory.
McLaren’s Lando Norris looked to have similar pace to Verstappen but spent most of the race stuck behind Charles Leclerc.
As Red Bull hope to continue Verstappen’s fine form, they have a number of modifications for this weekend.
Red Bull’s upgrades for Mexico City GP
Every weekend, teams must declare whether they have new upgrades or modifications.
While they don’t seem to be significant, two of Red Bull’s four noted changes are centred around “local load”.
Red Bull hope that the changes add more downforce and thus improve lap time.
Red Bull have made tweaks to the floor body and edge wing.
In terms of the floor body, Red Bull said: “As a make from the previous specification of floor, a new upper surface rearwards of the outer floor fence plus sidepod split line are offered, the latter to accommodate the sidepod revision. These offer the cooling benefit noted above and a small increase in load.”
A similar explanation was given for the edge wing change: “To draw benefit from the lowered upper floor surface and made from the previous edge wing specification, a revised leading edge region extracts a little more load whilst maintaining flow stability.”
Ferrari, Alpine, Racing Bulls, Williams, and Sauber have made modifications to their cars to improve cooling.
The Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez is one of the most punishing circuits on the calendar, due to its high altitude.
The thin air means cars easily overheat when running behind a rival.
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