James Allison, the technical director of Mercedes has expressed a keen interest in exploring Red Bull’s new RB20, stating he would want an invitation to do so.
Despite their previous season’s dominance, Red Bull has revamped its design philosophy, particularly focusing on notable changes to the car’s cooling system.
This includes radical sidepod inlets and an engine cover bodywork configuration reminiscent of Mercedes’ W13, even though the Silver Arrows have since departed from that design approach.
Allison speaking to Sky Sports F1: “I would deeply love to be invited into the Red Bull garage to take their engine cover off and delve around under those snorkel-y things.”
“There is definitely a different approach taken there because what glimpses you see of the cooling system, it is definitely not light, so they are doing that for a reason. I would love to know what that reason is but we haven’t figured it out yet.”
Mercedes raised heads introducing unique features to the W15, particularly in the front wing design. This includes a distinctive layout with a reduced span for the top flap element.
The 56-year-old shed light on the rationale behind this design choice, stating: “We just didn’t want a lot of chord at that point.”
“If you have a look at all the wings, their chord varies across the span of the wing according to what the team thinks is going to work for them.
“I guess with our little inboard flap… we have to satisfy the rule so we have to have some flap there, but we don’t want an enormous one. So we made a small one.”
Lewis Hamilton and George Russell familiarized themselves with the W15 during the recent pre-season testing in Bahrain.
Heading into the first race weekend in a few days, Andrew Shovlin expressed optimism in the team’s progress, particularly in long runs, stating, “We’re still trying to fine-tune the set-up, there will definitely be more to come,” Shovlin said in a Mercedes social media debrief.
“Overall we’re happy, we definitely made progress. In terms of pace, the long run probably looks like our strength at the moment.
“There’s more work to do on a single lap, but we should be in a position to hopefully put in a good showing when we get back on track.”
