I’m here at the Las Vegas Grand Prix (courtesy of eBay Motors), and a big story here is about how Red Bull allegedly forgot to bring its low-drag rear wing, forcing the team to actually take a freakin’ Dremel to its wing to get optimal performance for the Las Vegas circuit. Yes, a precisely designed-in-CAD carbon fiber wing is being sawed off with a rotary tool.
It’s a blunder that reminds me of two recent automotive boneheaded mistakes — one made by Rivian and one made by yours truly.
Spacer
Check out Motorsport.com to see imagery of the rather crude rotary tool in action. Here’s how the racing enthusiast website describes the situation:
Red Bull has found itself on the back foot at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, with the rear wing it is running proving to be much draggier than what its rivals have on board.
In a bid to help Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez attack the long straights, Red Bull arrived in Las Vegas with a trimmed rear and beam wing arrangement rather than designing a bespoke solution specifically for this track.
This lowest drag arrangement is similar to what it took to Monza, but it has been a bit more aggressive this time around in trimming away more of the flap (yellow dotted line, for comparison). It wasn’t enough though, as the team found itself up to 7km/h down on its rivals in some of the speed traps during FP1.
In response to this deficit, it cut away more of the upper flap’s trailing edge in a bid to get rid of as much drag as possible.
OK, so it seems like the widespread rumors of Red Bull having “forgotten” to bring the correct wing are horseshit, and the reality is that the team just doesn’t have a bespoke wing for the Las Vegas track. Why not? Well, racingnews365 says it comes down to cost, and speaking of cost, the site mentions what this deficiency could cost the team:
The cost cap era of F1 mandates tough financial calls and as Verstappen pointed out in Italy, the team ultimately spent the money elsewhere.
It has not previously hindered the reigning constructors’ champions, but the RB20 is far from the dominant car its predecessors were. It is the nexus of the issue now, and why it has not bitten Red Bull in past years.
And with Verstappen poised to win a fourth-consecutive F1 drivers’ title, Red Bull’s subsequent outright speed deficit could prevent the Dutchman from securing the crown in Sin City.
Unless he can keep Lando Norris from reducing his arrears in the points standings from 62 to fewer than 60, the fight will rumble on to Qatar.
So no, there wasn’t a boneheaded “I forgot the wing back home!” situation, but that didn’t stop these rumors from leading me to write this article about other boneheaded mistakes I have on my mind right now.
I recently sat down with Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe at a roundtable in Venice, and he told us about some of the benefits of the company’s partnership with Volkswagen, one of which is the gravity of having such a giant company in your corner, and how this can allow for much more leverage when negotiating with suppliers. Previously, RJ told journalists he’d find himself sitting in suppliers’ waiting rooms, only to have an entry-level employee basically not take his new startup seriously. Now, with Rivian more successful, suppliers are flying to see him, and with VW making major investments in Rivian, that’s a major lever to pull at the negotiation table.
We didn’t have time to discuss the absolutely absurd blunder that Rivian made recently — one that cost the company 10,000-ish cars, per Bloomberg, who writes:
The carmaker miscalculated when communicating supply and demand needs with Essex, Rivian’s sole supplier of what are essentially copper wires that carry the electric current inside the EV motors, said the people, who asked not to be identified discussing the confidential matter.
Essex Furukawa, a unit of Superior Essex Inc., subsequently committed its machines to support other customers, the people said. Rivian has identified other suppliers capable of providing appropriate replacements, but at too high a cost at such short notice.
My god, what an absolutely boneheaded mistake, and one that hopefully the VW partnership can help solve down the line (though Rivian states that right now the partnership involves only software sharing, not other major hardware bits). You’ve got one supplier for a critical part of critical parts like a motor, and you screw up communicating what you need, therefore causing a 30% reduction in vehicle output; that’s a gaffe of epic proportions.
So Red Bull may not actually “Give You Wings,” but it seems that wasn’t that big of a blunder given the cost cap, and the Rivian supplier thing was a huge mistake, but where does my own personal blunder fall among these?
I actually pretty much ruined an entire day regretting having forgotten to file my power company’s $1000 EV rebate on time. I’d purchased my 2021 BMW i3S in May, and I had six months to apply for the Southern California Edison EV rebate. Six months!
And that was free money, too, which could have helped bring down the rather egregiously high price of my beloved Holy Grail i3S. But I blew it. Last week I remembered, then I quickly checked the paperwork of my BMW i3 purchase, and saw that 185 days had elapsed — five days over the cap. I called Southern California Edison and they told me I was SOL.
$1000 lost due to my own stupidity.
It’s situations like mine and Rivians that you can’t let drag you down. I grew up as the child of an Army Officer, and I had five brothers. Our household was quite a “macho” one where complaining wasn’t really allowed, and if something had you down, you could rely on the same advice from dad: “Drive on.”
No matter what you were going through, that was the answer. You just got into a fight in school? Drive on. You just went through a breakup? Drive on. You just lost $1000 due to your own stupidity? Drive on.
Maybe it wasn’t the most comforting reply, and maybe we’d have liked a bit more empathy in certain situations, but the words communicate the danger of regret, a sometimes debilitating emotion. And thus, Rivian drives on in its quest to become a successful EV company, I drive on not thinking about $1000 I never had, and Max Verstappen? He’ll drive on to a title.
Topshot: Red Bull/Rivian
Nothing that comes from a/the government is free.
Sure, someone will have to pay for it, but as long as that’s rich people/poor people/people who haven’t been born yet/those people/etc and not me, then it’s free for me. And that’s what counts.
Much of life is just taking it on the chin and driving on.
Ain’t that the truth
And much of life is saying “I’m going to try for this anyway even though it seems like all is lost.”
DAVID, as your lawyer I recommend you submit the application (backdate it to a day or 2 before the deadline… and is it possible for you to massage the purchase date?) and send 10-15 folllow up emails.
Same happened to me with my Bolt. I knew they were on the CHEAPR list for rebates, but it was the 20’s and newer, not the 2018 I bought. Forgot this, and bought it anyway, and lost out on $3k worth of rebates because the drop-down box only went to 2020. I could call, but there are rules, and I am not a Karen. I fucked up, and now have to own one extra year of payments. Aka, take it on the chin because the “doors closed at 8”.
Rivian’s mistake is that 3 rectangle tables formed a square in that meeting, not a round table.
They don’t believe in cutting corners.
The good side of your mistake is that $1000 will be available for someone else to claim. Just imagine that it’s someone who needs it more, and that might make you feel a little less bummed about it.
What’s the worst that happens if you send in that rebate application anyways? They give you the money? They throw it in the shred bin?
Rivian’s biggest mistake is their boneheaded choice to keep those goofy Mr Krabs eyeballs on the front of their otherwise attractive vehicles.
Nah. Jaguar made the biggest boneheaded car mistake.
It is pretty bad. “Let’s be modern and edgy, by using decidedly dated advertising techniques, a font that looks like it’s from 2010 and make no cars for a while. Brilliant!”
The worst part is that I was waiting for their lineup before making a decision! Ugh..
I am trying real hard to withhold judgement until I see one of the cars, but that ad campaign didn’t make me feel confident they were going to deliver…
I’m hoping Jaguar’s new branding turns out to be an epic troll. Really hoping.
If Jaguar turns around and says “It was a prank bro!” I think their crowd will have a hard time trusting them ever again.
Im going to go with you made the biggest as that $1,000 could have been used to take your YJ to a shop to get the gas issue fixed.
This is pretty good advice, and from my own upbringing I think there’s an unspoken second part: “and don’t make the same mistake again”.
The good thing is you probably won’t be in the position again to make the mistake of not sending in a rebate after buying an i3, so the chances of recidivism are low. 🙂
As someone diagnosed with both depression and ADHD, I know the dangers of procrastination and absentmindedness very well and have often had to drive on to a state of acceptance myself. But I have found that one thing to help in these situations and in many others is outright fraud. Yes, it’s extra work that you may not want to do, but with a little planning to pull it off well and a complete lack of any ethical sense, it can be not just compensatory but fun and profitable in its own right.
This comment is gold.
*Checks comment with loupe*
Fool’s gold, Tracy! We’ve been had!
Whistles innocently…
Username checks out.
He would be defrauding a MOST deserving entity. I say go for it.
It may not be politically correct, but it’s a good answer nonetheless.
I think we need shirts and/or bumper stickers that say “Drive On.”
My headstone shall read: Drove on.
Oh David. Here is what I have learned in 60+ years on this planet. If you have 8 hours to do a four hour job you do it in the first four hours just in case something comes up. Hint something always comes up. Look back what was so important that you could not do this? Nothing. Procrastinating is a mind killer. However Red Bull doesn’t give you wings. For decades computer geeks have told us we don’t need real life testing computers can do it. So why is there no designed wing? Why can’t they just use a 3d printer? Because computer design not only can’t take repair cost and room into consideration it can’t design anything new without important factors. Frankly computers only good for checking your work after it is done.
You couldn’t print an F1 wing. They lay up the fibers in very specific orientations for both strength and flexibility. No way for a 3D printer to do something like that (yet).
Good to know
YOU WOULDN’T DOWNLOAD A(N F1) CAR
As an aerodynamics engineer and CFD boy, I’m here to tell you that computers are very much relevant to aerodynamic design.
You do have to keep in mind it’s just a tool, but disregarding simulation driven design and optimization is short sighted.
PS: deepshit CEOs advocating for “test less product design” are morons though.
Kinda like when Torch invited Dave to address timing chain issues on his wife’s Tiguan and they spent the whole time playing with the Changli?
Under the sporting regulations, CFD time is very limited. The prior year ranking determines your allowance and since RB finished first in the championship, they get the least time.
With how strict the F1 rulebook is I’m surprised it’s even allowed. It is a pretty baller move though. “Fuck it, Dremel some of it off” is good motorsports.
It happens way more often than you might realize. Most often to reduce overheating at sauna tracks
yeah, but not a Dremel. angle grinder.
I would want at least a harbor freight trim router.
Die grinder. 🙂
My thought is that in a sport of millimeters and less, I’d make every adjustment by the finest means available. I wouldn’t be surprised if “sand it down” was considered for remediation at some point.
Edit: and depending on what’s happening, I wouldn’t necessarily start with 40 or 80 grit either.
All I know is Max owes Cut-Off Wheel Guy a watch or something.
Shhhhh I haven’t watched yet. Waiting for the baby to wake up and my son to get here for the watch party.
Being rich enough to have the ability to say “F it, chop up the wing, we’ll have Leonardo and Esteban fix it post-race” helps too. A less well off team probably would have taken the speed hit, hoping to make it up at a slower track.
It sounds like Red Bull is competing in Lemons with that mindset, and I love it.
Apply for the rebate anyway and try using the date you actually registered the vehicle instead of the purchase date and see what happens…
This is the correct answer.