Renault regrets following Red Bull: 'That's what we're stuck with now'

Renault believes that it has done itself a disservice in recent years. Marcin Budkowski, Renault's technical director, explains that his team has followed Red Bull Racing's aerodynamic choices too much in recent years.

Red Bull is actually known as a team that does a good job in the field of aerodynamics. The team has been driving for years with an adjustment where the rear of the car is set higher than the front, also called rake. As a result, the car is diagonal, which creates more downforce. This can be handy, but it also creates more drag on the car, which doesn't benefit the top speed.

It always seemed that this philosophy of Red Bull worked well. So there were a number of teams that took over, including Renault. But they now regret that with the French team. That's because from 2021 the rules concerning the floor of the car will change.

Disadvantageous for Renault

But what effects this will have for Renault, Marcin Budkowski, technical director of Renault, is not yet able to say, according to an interview by Auto, Motor, und Sport. "That is not yet clear. The trend of more and more rake is over its peak and more and more teams are heading in the opposite direction. But we can't just change everything in one winter when we see whether more or less rake is the best."

For Renault this means above all that they can't change the inclination of the car as much as they want. "We are now stuck at the angle we are using. It's not as high as Red Bull's, but not as low as Mercedes."