Why Red Bull's 'failed' crash test may be bad news for competitors

What exactly is a crash test? In order to ensure safety standardsare kept high in Formula 1, teams must subject their chassis to acrash test every year. If a team fails the test, the chassis is notallowed to participate in races. A chassis is tested at both frontimpact, rear impact and also for safety at side impacts. The speedis usually between 36 and 54 kph. These speeds provide the mostaccurate results when it comes to how a chassis absorbs the impact.A driver's so-called survival cell must always remain fully intact,and in the case of a frontal impact at the front, for example, adriver must not be subjected to more than 60G within 0.03 secondsof impact. A total of nearly 20 tests will be carried out. For RedBull, the first crash test for the new car reportedly went wrong,causing a lot of noise. When Helmut Marko was asked questions aboutit, the Red Bull Motorsport Advisor responded: "If we had passedthe first crash test, that would be precisely a problem. Then wewould not have done well!" Warning to the competition? And there isan important grain of truth in that. Weight is a key factor whenpassing the crash test. The heavier the car, the better the chassiscan absorb the impact. So if you want to take risks with the weightof your new car, you may fail a crash test once in the quest forbetter lap times. This has happened several times in the past,without consequences. It just goes to show once again that Red Bullhas not been idle after dominating last term. The team is not yetsatisfied after 21 wins and both world titles and is, arguably,taking new risks with the RB20. Development of the superior RB19was halted early on, after which the focus went to 2024. Therumours surrounding the "failed" crash test show that Red Bull isagain pushing the limits within current regulations and is hungryto beat the competition again this season. Of course, Red Bull isgoing to pass a crash test before the new season, so it is not outof the question that the competition is watching developments withsuspicion. Standing still is going backwards in Formula 1 andwithin the current ground effect regulations it is more difficultto develop the car. Perhaps risks have to be taken. We are, ofcourse, only going to actually see what Red Bull has come up withand designed during the Bahrain Grand Prix. In any case, currentdevelopments are creating a lot of curiosity. Is the RB20 a newrocket, or will we get to see fierce competition? Time will tell.