Red Bull continues to introduce new parts to its cars in a bid to maintain Max Verstappen’s recent momentum in the race for the drivers’ championship at the Mexico City Grand Prix.
Since Red Bull introduced the floor update at Monza, Verstappen has taken 64 points from Oscar Piastri’s championship lead in the past four races. Floorbody upgrades have also been made at Mexico City, a track where the team regularly focuses on altitude-induced cooling requirements, and this goes hand in hand with redistributing the topbody exit area to improve reliability.
“From the previous specification of the floor, a new upper surface and sidepod dividing line is provided behind the outer floor fence, the latter corresponding to the sidepod revision,” Red Bull explained. “These provide the above cooling effect even with a small increase in load.”
The brake ducts have been enlarged for cooling reasons, and the new floor also has updated floor edges, which Red Bull describes as subtle modifications that “take out a bit more load while maintaining flow stability.”
Both Ferrari development areas are aimed at reliability, with new bodywork exit louvers and larger rear brake ducts for cooling. Meanwhile, Alpine, Williams, Racing Bulls and Sauber all have additional louvers or body exits for the same purpose.
Ferrari’s update notes that this change comes at the expense of the car’s efficiency, with the air being less dense above 7,200 feet above sea level, requiring more air to pass through the car to cool the brakes and power unit.
McLaren, Mercedes, Aston Martin and Haas have not submitted any new components for this weekend’s race.