Fresh Red Bull hope despite British GP downforce gamble backfire

Matthew Somerfield 08 Jul 2025 7:30 AM

Red Bull continues to apply pressure on those ahead of it, as it looks to prise more performance from the RB21 on a race-by-race basis.

This includes a steady stream of updates arriving for the car, as it works to iron out some of its kinks and extract more usable performance from a machine that often appears temperamental.

More floor, less wing

Red Bull introduced a revised layout at the front of the floor at the British Grand Prix, with some subtle changes made to the floor fences and the main floor body, which leverage performance from one another.

The shape of the fences themselves appear to be very similar to those that preceded them, but the team did note in the car presentation document, ahead of the event, that it’s repositioned them laterally at the leading edge in order to optimise their performance.

Meanwhile, the floor itself has been adjusted to take advantage of these adjustments, with further alterations likely made downstream, out of view, too.

Clues to what has been changed in terms of the underfloor’s design can often be found by looking at the changes in the upper surface geometry, as it’s essentially an out-turned pocket of what lies beneath.

One of the raised sections in the downsloping region, around the fences, has been adjusted (arrowed), with a more prominent hump now found on the floor’s upper surface, whilst the more squared leading profile that could be found here has also been traded out for a tapered version.

The new parts appear to have helped extract some performance from the RB21, albeit Max Verstappen isn’t sure, yet, the magnitude of the gains that can be attributed to it.

“I’m not sure, of course, how much it did [make a difference], but for sure, it brought something, you know, and I’m happy, of course, with any kind of upgrade that we get on the car. And you know, we just keep learning, keep trying to be better and take it race by race, what we can do.”

It’s also important to realise that these latest modifications follow-on from the updates made to the floor’s edge wing at the Austrian Grand Prix (above), which had been brought forward, as they were ready ahead of schedule and could work to increase performance in isolation from those introduced at Silverstone.

👉 Red Bull play the imitation game with RB21 upgrade for Austrian GP

In order to boost its straight-line speed and dial out the chronic understeer it was facing, Red Bull made the switch to a much less loaded rear wing for qualifying and the race (top), having evaluated both during Free Practice.

However, as Verstappen explained, whilst that might have worked for qualifying, the race was always going to be another bridge to cross.

“We looked a bit slow yesterday on the other wing. Plus I was just understeering to the moon, so I had to try and reduce a bit that understeer. And it seemed to work.

“I mean, it is light on downforce for sure. I mean, you can see that, I guess. But it seemed to hold on, and that’s why, yeah, we decided to stick with it, and we’ll see what we get from it tomorrow in the race”.

Red Bull