Red Bull is one of just three teams to bring new parts to the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, as it looks to recover from its recent handling difficulties.
A change to the floor body features “floor tunnel geometry [that has been] subtly revised by locally raising or lowering the surfaces,” according to the team, which seeks a better balance after being off the pace in Monza two weeks ago. That is the only new part submitted to the FIA by any of the top four teams, with McLaren having updated its car in Zandvoort and Ferrari at Monza.
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Aston Martin has made a minor adjustment to its rear corner, trimming the bottom edge of the lower deflector. The team says the change modifies airflow around the rear part of the floor, helping to extract more performance from that part of the car.
The only other team to bring a new part to Baku is RB, where there is a tweak to the front wing. RB has reduced the camber of the front flap, in turn reducing overall load for balance purposes on a track that is low drag. Baku features a 1.3-mile flat-out section out of Turn 16 until braking for Turn 1, emphasizing the need to reduce drag and maximize top speed.
The low number of new parts is partly due to the race schedule, with back-to-back flyaway races in Baku and Singapore being followed by a three-week gap before a tripleheader of Austin, Mexico and Brazil. Targeting the latter trio of races gives teams significantly more time to develop parts and still get good value out of them with a quarter of the season remaining.