Red Bull throw last roll of the dice with major upgrade as McLaren cement dominance

Red Bull has rolled out a new floor for this weekend's Italian Grand Prix in its last bid to save face on a fading F1 season.

Whilst its constructors' championship challenge evaporated long ago, given McLaren's dominance this season, finishing second is now its target, and with it to secure an additional $20 million in prize money.

That is the difference between finishing second and fourth for the constructors, with Mercedes currently leading that battle by 46 points over fourth-placed Red Bull. Ferrari, in third, is 34 points adrift of the German manufacturer.

Ahead of this weekend's race in Monza, Red Bull, McLaren, Ferrari, and Mercedes have all introduced new elements, with the new floor on the RB21 one of the most significant.

The revisions to the floor body, fences and edge have all been designed to extract more load via improved pressure distribution, so hopefully improving performance.

Changes have also been made to the front wing because the nature of the low-downforce Monza circuit typically sees relatively low levels of rear wing, necessitating a consummate change in the front wing.

Red Bull has shortened the chords of the third and fourth elements to achieve the target front wing load range.

Despite the fact that McLaren has crushed its rivals this year, the changes to the MCL38 highlight the fact that there is no let-up in its drive for success this year, although the updates to the front wing, rear wing and beam wing are all circuit-specific.

There is an additional tweak to the front suspension with reprofiled fairings to improve flow conditioning, in combination with the low-drag configuration for Monza.

At Ferrari, its improved rear and lower beam wing are carried-over components from last year’s low downforce events. The top rear-wing flap geometries and trim are different to allow modulation, according to the team.

Like Red Bull, Ferrari has also modified its front wing to conform to the optimum downforce level of Monza.

Mercedes has made a subtle change to the rear-wing tip detail, a change in camber distribution to the outboard floor fences, whilst also reducing the camber to the front-wing flap.

Of the other teams, Racing Bulls has modified its car the most, notably unveiling a new bodywork shape to the coke/engine cover, as well as alterations to the rear wing, floor body and mirrors.

At Aston Martin, there is a new flap option on its rear wing; Haas has made a minor change to its front wing, whilst Williams has introduced circuit-specific elements to its front and rear wings. Alpine and Stake are unaltered.