How Red Bull has further improved its dominant RB19 F1 car

The modifications centre around the car's sidepods, with the shape of the inlet and underbite corrected in order to improve flow to the radiators, coolers and ancillaries housed within. The reshaping will obviously have a bearing on the external flow stream too.

Red Bull has achieved this by widening the aperture and raising the leading edge of the underbite, which alters the aspect ratio, but shouldn't impact the volume dramatically.

This results in a win-win between its cooling demands and increasing space in the undercut beneath the sidepod to deliver more airflow to the rear of the car.

Red Bull RB19 sidepod inlet comparison

Photo by: Uncredited

As a consequence of the bodywork being widened around the inlet, the rest of the sidepod's geometry has been subtly altered too. This helps take advantage of the additional space afforded to the undercut to improve both the physical interaction with the floor and their aerodynamic kinship.

In order to fully complement it, the geometry of the floor's edge and the aerodynamic furniture that is mounted upon it have also been subtly recrafted to increase their performance too.

To further capitalise on the efforts here, there's also a change upstream, with the outer floor fence being massaged on the top edge in order to better align the local airflow and take advantage of the changes made downstream.

Red Bull Racing RB19 side detail

Photo by: Giorgio Piola

Modifications have also been made to the rear brake duct fence, with one of the winglets now split into two, in order to better manage the airflow in that region.

While other teams have introduced new, lower-downforce rear-wing variants for the challenges posed by the Baku street circuit, Red Bull has not, opting to use the solutions that have already proved to be extremely potent this season.

It's likely it will use a similar set-up to the one used in Australia, in fact, with its lower downforce rear wing option paired with the single-element lower beam wing.

Red Bull Racing RB19 technical detail

Photo by: Uncredited

Mercedes lowers the drag

Mercedes also has a package of parts at its disposal in Azerbaijan, as it looks to make up ground on those ahead of it.

There is a mixture of track-specific updates and ongoing developmental components but, given this weekend is the first in a new format that includes just one free practice session and four competitive sessions, the team has opted for smaller alterations, ahead of the introduction of a larger package of parts that are expected to arrive in the coming weeks.

At the rear of the car, there are changes to both the rear wing in terms of the tip section of the endplate and the lower deflector of the rear brake duct.

The tip section has been an area where Mercedes has already focused its attention throughout the course of these new regulations, with the team designing its endplate in such a way that the section can be changed quickly without needing to completely dismantle the wing.

Subtle changes have been made to the shape of the endplate and tip section for Azerbaijan to improve flow around the upper corner of the endplate, with various corners cut out and infill panels still at its disposal.

Meanwhile, the lower rear brake deflector now has a three-tiered step profile, rather than the larger single step that could be found on the W14 in the opening three races of the season, as the team looks to improve both local performance and assist the diffuser alongside.

To improve cooling at a circuit that's demanding on the brakes, Mercedes has also increased the size of its rearward-facing outlet, while changes to the fairing on the lower wishbone have been made at the outboard end, as the team looks to improve how the airflow interacts with the floor behind.