Red Bull continues to bring new parts to its car as it looks to keep up recent momentum for Max Verstappen in the drivers’ championship fight at the Mexico City Grand Prix.
Verstappen has taken 64 points out of Oscar Piastri’s championship lead in the past four races, since Red Bull introduced a floor update in Monza. There is another floor body upgrade in Mexico City – a track where teams are regularly focusing on cooling requirements due to the altitude – that goes hand-in-hand with redistributed top body exit areas for increased reliability.
“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,” Red Bull explained. “These offer the cooling benefit noted above a small increase in load.”
Along with enlarged brake ducts for cooling reasons, the new floor also sees an update to the floor edge, which Red Bull describes as a subtle revision that “extracts a little more load while maintaining flow stability.”
Ferrari’s two areas of development are both for reliability purposes, with new bodywork exit louvers and enlarged rear brake ducts for cooling, while Alpine, Williams, Racing Bulls and Sauber all also have additional louvers or bodywork exits for the same purpose.
In Ferrari’s update, it notes that the changes do come at the expense of car efficiency, with the less dense air at over 7,200 feet above sea level requiring greater amounts through the car to help keep brakes and power units cool.
McLaren, Mercedes, Aston Martin and Haas have not submitted any new components for this weekend’s race.
