Ted Kravitz raises yet more questions about Red Bull’s RB20 innovative solutions

Max Verstappen heads down the pit lane in the RB20

Ted Kravitz says never mind the bodywork of the RB20, it’s the nose and front wing that he’d be surprised to see on the car come the race in Bahrain next week.

Red Bull caught the attention of the F1 paddock when they unveiled the 2024 RB20 with the car featuring a few Mercedes-styled parts.

Breaking away from the design philosophy of their dominant RB19, the new car has Mercedes-styled sidepod inlets as well as the gulleys that were present on the W14’s engine cover.

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It had Sky Sports analyst Bernie Collins wondering if that would be the car that took to the track in Bahrain on Wednesday morning.

“I think maybe years in F1 have made me suspicious,” she said in the latest Sky F1 podcast, “so let’s see the car that rolls out on Day One in Bahrain because I’m not sure it’s going to be that car. This could just be a little joke.”

It, though, was the car with pundits applauding Red Bull’s innovation.

But while Collins questioned the bodywork, for Kravitz it’s the front wing that interests him.

Showing off the RB20 at the launch, the final portion of the nosecone had an extra strip at the very end, held in place by four screws.

Speculated to be ballast or just an add-on for the launch spec car, Kravitz believed it would go. It didn’t.

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Pointing to a wing as it lay in the pit lane waiting to be bolted onto Verstappen’s RB20, the Sky pit lane reporter said: “Just below that sticker which says Red Bull Racing (on the nose), everyone was expecting that panel of carbon fibre to be a trick and to be removed.

“And for there to be just a join between the nose and that second main plane on the front wing.

“Well not so. But that doesn’t mean that it’s not there, it’s just they haven’t actually shown us what the real nose looks like.

“If the real nose does look like that going into the race in a week’s time, I’ll be surprised but nothing’s impossible.”