Red Bull eyes RB11 nose-job for Melbourne

Red Bull is working frantically to give its 2015 car a nose-job before its Australian Grand Prix race debut next weekend.

Unlike most of the other major teams, the 2014 runner-ups ran in Barcelona for the final winter test last week with only minor upgrades for its RB11.

Auto Motor und Sport reports: “The planned major upgrade stayed in the pits, because the short nose had failed the team’s internal crash test.”

Indeed, after the field of 2015 was launched, the paddock consensus was that a Williams-style ultra-short nose would be widely copied this year.

Red Bull duly designed its first major upgrade for the RB11 around a new short-nose concept, but the solution is reportedly more troublesome when it comes to satisfying the FIA’s mandatory front impact tests.

So if the nose cannot for now be raced, “It did not make sense to modify the rest of the car”, Auto Motor und Sport added. “The new package is based entirely on the ultra-short nose.”

If Red Bull can get the nose through the crash test before Melbourne, “sources claim it will be a big step forward” for the RB11, the report said.