Red Bull: Vettel will have a new chassis in Barcelona

Announced a few days ago, the change of chassis for Sebastian Vettel’s RB10 will indeed take place starting from the Spanish Grand Prix. What is referred to as the chassis is the survival cell in which the driver sits, and to which the suspensions and power unit are attached.

This will not be anything revolutionary, however. This change had been planned for a long time to take place in Barcelona.

Rob Marshall, chief designer, states on the Red Bull Racing site: « Sebastian will have a new chassis in Barcelona, which was planned from the start of the season, and the next one will be for Dan [Ricciardo] around Silverstone. »

He specifies that this is normal operation for a Formula 1 team: « Normally, we make four or five chassis during the year, maybe six, so it’s not unusual for each driver to change at least once or twice during the year. Normally, they would use at least two. »

However, this planned chassis change will not be an advantage as he explains to us:

« It shouldn’t be one since, in theory, they are all the same [the chassis]. Drivers don’t always want to switch – they can get attached to a particular chassis, and when they are on a good streak of results, they stick to it as long as possible! »

If the Red Bull Formula 1 car is to present an advantage, it will not be at the chassis level but rather what surrounds it. However, Red Bull’s chief designer refuses to specify the actual changes made to the single-seater.

He succinctly states: « All teams will have developments, and we will see what they will be in a few days. »