RED BULL RB4 Renault

   The Red Bull RB4 is a fundamental single-seater in the history of the Milton Keynes–based team in Buckinghamshire, England. Although it was not yet on par with the very best cars, it represents the moment when Adrian Newey’s influence truly began to be felt, transforming the Austrian team into a serious title contender. The RB4 is an evolution of the 2007 car, correcting its main reliability issues, and it is the last Red Bull of the so-called “Baroque era”, characterized by extremely complex aerodynamics, before the 2009 regulations drastically simplified the wings. Despite its modest results, the importance of the RB4 lies in the later Red Bull single-seaters, as Newey used the 2008 car to refine packaging and weight-distribution concepts that would make subsequent RB models almost unbeatable.

RED BULL RB4, Mark Webber
Valencia, European GP 2008 

   Team Principal Christian Horner added several valuable members to the already substantial technical staff of the team. Alongside Adrian Newey (Chief Technical Officer, tasked with pushing the integration between chassis and aerodynamics to its limits), there was Geoff Willis (Technical Director, whose pragmatic approach focused on solving the chronic reliability issues of the car from which the RB4 evolved, originally designed by Mark Smith). Peter Prodromou and Dan Fellows (Head of Aerodynamics and Chief Aerodynamicist respectively) led the aerodynamic department in Milton Keynes, which soon became one of the most advanced in the world, surpassing even giants such as Ferrari and McLaren in terms of creativity. Rob Marshall (Chief Designer, famous for the Renault Mass Damper) worked on making the RB4’s gearbox and suspension extremely compact, allowing Newey to design a very narrow and aerodynamic bodywork. The team also included Andrew Green as Head of R&D and Iain Bomphray as Chief Engineer Composites.

RED BULL RB4, David Coulthard
Catalunya-Barcelona, Spanish GP 2008

   The RB4 was one of the first cars to bring to the track the extended engine cover, better known as the Shark Fin, a profile extending from the engine cover to the rear wing with the purpose of stabilizing the airflow directed toward the wing during cornering, making the car more stable. At the front, the RB4 featured an incredibly complex front wing, with the most visible characteristic being the Bridge Wing, which arches over the nose and connects the two lateral flaps. This element creates a vortex of clean air directed toward the floor and sidepods, although its sensitivity to ride height sometimes drastically altered the car’s behavior. Newey also pushed the design of the bargeboards, the deflectors behind the front wheels. to the limit. Their role is to literally push the turbulence created by the front wheels away from the car’s body, protecting the airflow that must feed the rear diffuser. The RB4’s sidepods featured a huge number of small carbon-fiber profiles in front of the rear wheels and above the sidepods, aimed at increasing aerodynamic efficiency without excessively increasing drag, since the car did not have as powerful an engine as its rivals.

RED BULL RB4, David Coulthard
Magny-Cours, French GP 2008

   Under the engine cover was the Renault RS27 V8 in its most advanced version. Although it was not the most powerful engine on the grid, giving up around 20–30 horsepower to Ferrari and Mercedes, the French V8 was highly appreciated by Newey because it required smaller radiators than its competitors, allowing for narrower and cleaner sidepods. It also delivered very smooth torque, a crucial factor in 2008, the year traction control was banned with the introduction of a standard ECU. The real Achilles’ heel of Red Bull in 2007 had been the gearbox. For the RB4, the technical team designed a completely new gearbox casing made of cast aluminum and engineered to be extremely rigid, as it acted as a structural element on which the rear suspension was mounted. The seven-speed sequential gearbox adopted the now indispensable seamless-shift system, enabling instantaneous gear changes without interrupting engine torque. The suspensions were configured in push-rod layout both at the front and rear, and Newey worked obsessively to reduce internal friction and improve the response of the third elements (the dampers controlling the car’s pitch), in order to make the RB4 gentle on the Bridgestone tires and widen their operating window. The result was a car that was mechanically well balanced and capable of absorbing kerbs effectively while maintaining traction on imperfect track surfaces.

RED BULL RB4, Mark Webber
Silverstone, British GP 2008

   The performance of the Red Bull RB4 in 2008 tells the story of a solid but incomplete car. While the previous year’s RB3 had been fast but fragile like crystal, the RB4 represented maturity: finally reliable and consistently capable of scoring points, yet still a step behind the top teams. The main drivers were the British David Coulthard (in the final season of his career) and the Australian Mark Webber, with Frenchman Sébastien Buemi as reserve driver. In Webber’s hands the new Red Bull proved particularly effective in qualifying laps, although in races excessive rear-tire wear and a slight lack of top speed prevented both drivers from fighting for leading positions. At the end of the season the team collected only 29 points (21 for Webber and 8 for Coulthard), securing 7th place in the Constructors’ Championship. Paradoxically, the RB4’s performance was overshadowed by its “sister” car, the Toro Rosso STR3 (6th in the standings). Both cars shared the same Newey-designed chassis but used different engines. The STR3’s Ferrari V8 delivered about 30 horsepower more than the Renault used by Red Bull, resulting in superior performance for the Faenza-based team’s car. In conclusion, the RB4 was not a winning car, but it served as a crucial learning platform for the team. Without the data gathered from the RB4’s performance, Newey would never have been able to design the RB5 of 2009, the car that would mark the beginning of the golden era of the Red Bull team.