For every team the gap between the final pre-season test and the first Grand Prix weekend two weeks later is more than just a logistical blur. It’s also a vital opportunity to make further tweaks and additions to the car, most of which will have already been planned even before the final test.

Red Bull aero updates

At Red Bull, long renowned as a team that can get new parts from design stage to the car extraordinarily quickly, they produced a new aero package that included a new front-wing endplate and a slightly revised bargeboard. The latter part of this had been briefly on the car in Barcelona, but was destroyed when Pierre Gasly had his second crash. The original plan was to have this on the car in Barcelona only for data gathering and correlation prior to its planned introduction – along with the new endplate – at the Chinese Grand Prix. But with some reorganisation, the team realised it would be possible to have the whole package ready in time for Melbourne and it was on the RB15 throughout the race weekend.

The modification to the endplate comprises a small cutaway at the top rear corner, helping the airflow to be guided around the tyre with a bit more force, albeit with a small sacrifice in how much downforce the wing elements themselves are creating. The endplates are there to create a ‘fence’ preventing the vortices that would form off the end of the elements from disrupting the flow over the elements. They thereby help the wing produce more downforce than if the ends were just in free air.