Today, we are looking at the best F1 car Red Bull has ever produced. The Honda Red Bull Racing RB16B. Piloted by 2021 World Championship contender Max Verstappen and his teammate, Sergio Perez.
The new RB16B is one of the most hotly anticipated cars of the 2021 launch. The car is designed to challenge a solid foundation set by its two Grands Prix-winning RB16 predecessors and hoping that in the hands of Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez, the team will lead to a championship-winning opportunity since its last win in 2013.
In 2019, Red Bull Racing turned to Honda, a Japanese manufacturer, to provide the Formula 1 engines to the Redbull Racing car and its sister team, Alpha Tauri.
SO LET'S TALK SPECS.
As we all know, F1 cars are the world's fastest and quickest racing cars ever made. It's even said that an F1 car can produce enough downforce to be driven upside down in a tunnel. So what powers the RB16B? Honda has provided its 1.6-litre RA621H turbocharged V6 hybrid engine, which produces 901hp. Yes, you read that right, a 1.6-litre engine producing 901hp! Combined with its lightweight monocoque chassis made of carbon fibre, the car weighs just 752 kg and sings to the red line limit of 15,000rpm. But that's not all that makes the RB16B special; it's got double wishbones, push-rod actuated torsion bar springs, and anti-roll bar in its front and rear suspension making it agile enough to achieve 0-100kph in mere 1.6 seconds and a top speed of over 300kph. Red Bull has taken over the engine development division from Honda Racing and will be independently in charge of the development of future Red Bull engines.
When you look at the aerodynamics of this car, you can see how complicated it is with everything moulded out of carbon fibre; it can cut through the wind like a hot knife through butter. The new RB16B gets a slightly modified front nose with two nose inlets. As for the carbon fibre, the floor, which by regulation shrinks by about 100mm towards the rear.
When looking at the bodywork, we can see the new revised design with respect to the previous generation RB16, specifically in the area where the gearbox sits, which is often referred to as the "coke bottle" as it mimics the shape of the classic Coca-Cola bottle.
2022 will see a new dawn in the Formula 1 world, with new regulations and a completely redesigned car. Pirelli will be introducing bigger 18" wheels to reduce the amount of overheating, which will increase the car's weight from the current 752kg to 790kg.
We will also get to see two striking features on the 2022 car: the over-wheel winglets and wheel covers, which were last seen in Formula 1 in 2009.
Honda Red Bull Racing is competing for the championship title this year against its rival, Mercedes-AMG Petronas and Max Verstappen, on a world championship tie with its rival Lewis Hamilton (at the time of this publication). With the new rules and regulations arriving in 2022, we expect more exciting and closer competition.