Where can Red Bull make the difference against Ferrari in Imola?

After three races it is clear that Ferrari has a better package than Red Bull Racing, but the proportions will differ from circuit to circuit. Ahead of the Grand Prix in Imola, GPblog maps out where exactly the difference will be made.

Racing in Imola

 

 

 

 

 

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Een bericht gedeeld door GPblog.com Nederland (@gpblog_nl)

The Emilia Romagna GP is held at the Autódromo Enzo é Dino Ferrari, which is a challenging circuit. Despite its short length, the current layout has no less than eighteen corners. So it's a lot of turning and twisting.

In the first slide of the GPblog Instagram post you can see the different types of speeds that are achieved on the circuit. For example, it colors green where there is full throttle, it is red where there is very slow driving and yellow indicates corners or spots of medium speed. Red and green in particular are in the majority here.

In the second slide, these colors are replaced by red and blue. Red Bull Racing (blue) is mainly fast when it comes to the straights. This has been different for years, but relative to Ferrari (red), Red Bull has shown in recent races that it is much faster on the straights.

However, Red Bull cannot convert that straight-line speed into downforce and that has been the big problem compared to Ferrari. The Italian team does, in fact, screw a lot of downforce onto the car, making it faster than the competition in medium and low speed corners.

Ferrari the favorite

In terms of colors, Imola seems like a circuit where it could be exciting between Red Bull and Ferrari, but appearances are deceiving in this case. On the straights, especially since they are short in Imola, Red Bull cannot gain much ground. With so many consecutive corners, it's more about the speed in the corners and the traction at the exit of the corner. In both cases, Ferrari is stronger due to the extra grip of the F1-75.

So on paper, the Imola circuit is a prey to Ferrari and the Tifosi at home would love that. However, Red Bull will come up with updates for the RB18 and the predicted rain could also cause some surprises.