Technical on

RB22 technical breakdown — what's new on the car

Wed, 25 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Red Bull launched the RB22 in early February. Visually it’s an evolution of the RB21, but there are several details worth highlighting.

Sidepods

The biggest visual change. The inlet has moved up and inward — closer to the cockpit — and the undercut has been deepened. This follows the philosophy that started with the RB18: cleaner airflow to the floor edge, more energy in the diffuser.

I think they’ve gone slightly more extreme than McLaren this year, which is a reversal of last year’s trend.

What the 2026 regulations actually changed

Tue, 10 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The 2026 regulations have been talked about for two years, and now we finally have running cars. Here’s a clean-headed look at what really changed and what stayed the same.

Power unit

This is where the real revolution happened. The internal combustion engine has been heavily simplified — no MGU-H anymore, which was always the most complex and expensive component. The MGU-K is now responsible for nearly 50% of total power output, up from about 20% under 2014–2025 rules.

Tyre strategy explained: how teams actually choose

Mon, 12 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Tyre strategy looks simple on TV. Soft, medium, hard, fastest theoretical race time wins. In reality the decision tree is much deeper, and a lot of armchair strategists make decisions based on incomplete information.

What teams know that we don’t

When you’re watching at home you see the lap times and the tyre age on the broadcast. Teams have:

Per-tyre temperature data (4 corners + carcass)
Real-time tyre wear estimation from sensors
Track temperature gradient over the race distance
Driver feedback in real-time about grip levels
Historical data on how that specific compound behaves at that specific track in similar conditions
Live competitor pace and strategy projections

This is why team radio calls sometimes look counterintuitive — they have data we don’t.