Christian Horner has told why Monza was the low point of the 2024 season, a sentiment also shared by Max Verstappen, who hopes to have put the worst behind him ahead of the final fight for the championship.
Going back, when Verstappen crossed the finish line of the inaugural race in Bahrain with a 22-second lead, there was speculation in the paddock that the 2024 season would be a repeat of the previous two F1 seasons. Six months later, however, the reality is very different: Red Bull has taken a wrong turn in the development of the RB20, while its rivals, led by McLaren, have made immense progress.
Speaking to Motorsport.com, Verstappen analyzed the challenges Red Bull has faced after such a positive start to the year. “At first I was surprised too, but if you look at what our problems were, then I understand them perfectly,” says the Dutchman. “At some point we went in the wrong direction. The other teams have not yet addressed that particular point or have developed the car slightly differently. It is always difficult to evaluate.”
With Verstappen still dominant in Japan and China, the Miami and Imola weekends in May were a turning point for the worse, but the reigning world champion reveals he sensed long before the outside world that things were not going well at Red Bull.
Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing RB20
Foto di: Steven Tee / Motorsport Images
“I immediately understood that the feeling was very different to last year’s car in terms of balance,” he explains. “At the time our car was still much faster than the others, or perhaps I should say that the other cars at the time were not yet that good, so at that stage we could still compensate for our difficulties. In the following races things always went worse. At one point our car was very difficult to drive and, at the same time, the others made real progress.”
Verstappen has repeatedly stated that he believes that the front and rear of the car are no longer in tune, distancing himself from last year’s sensations. At the car’s unveiling in Milton Keynes last winter, Verstappen revealed he was shocked by the radical changes when he first saw sketches of the RB20, which now raises the question of whether or not the change in concept was a mistake: “I don’t think you can tell from the outside what went wrong, so that’s not the point,” dismissed Verstappen. “The way the car looks on the outside is not the issue.”
Does Red Bull’s outdated wind tunnel play a role?
Verstappen’s comments on handling imply that Red Bull’s problem is at least partly bottom-related. The unintended consequences of a new fund are an issue that many teams have faced with these regulations. Mercedes struggled with ground-effect cars for two years, while Ferrari saw high-speed bouncing return with the floor upgrade in Barcelona.
“It seems more complicated than everyone thinks,” acknowledges Verstappen. “At the moment McLaren is also waiting to bring a new fund, which they are not entirely sure about. The updates are much more delicate than the previous regulations.”
Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing, 2nd place, raises the trophy in celebration
Foto di: Andy Hone / Motorsport Images
Teams are also having difficulty correlating their sensitive wind tunnel surface updates with the car’s actual behavior in the real world, finding out the hard way that loading in the virtual world doesn’t always make the car faster on the track. This theme seems particularly relevant in the case of Red Bull, given its relatively outdated wind tunnel, with the team currently working on a new structure.
“It’s a very difficult topic to deal with, but it’s more complicated to do it well than with old cars,” acknowledges Verstappen, while downplaying the impact of the team’s wind tunnel. “It’s true that we have a rather old wind tunnel, but up until this year it did everything well. Some things are difficult to understand.”
“You see it in all the other teams too, except McLaren. All the teams have had their problems, even those with modern wind tunnels. I think it’s extremely difficult to fine-tune things perfectly or get exactly the right data This can depend on many things in the wind tunnel itself or on its correlation with the track.”
Has Red Bull found the beginning of a solution?
For Red Bull, the main objective is to put an end to this period in which it has found less competitiveness. According to Verstappen, this upward trajectory has already started with the fund upgrade in Baku. Although Verstappen got the set-up wrong in Azerbaijan, which makes comparisons difficult, after a difficult period teammate Sergio Perez managed to fight for the podium before a late crash.
Technical detail of the fund brought to Baku for the Red Bull Racing RB20
Photo by: Giorgio Piola
A week later Verstappen took second place in Singapore and, although he was a long way off title rival Lando Norris in the McLaren, the fact that Red Bull finished on the podium on what had been its worst track in 2023 was a positive signal.
The team only spoke of “subtle changes” to the surface in Baku, but Verstappen hopes that this specific update is the start of the recovery: “Yes, the feeling was better. It was already a good step forward for us. I think now we are moving in the right direction, but it will take time. You can’t transform something like this in one or two weeks. I think the team was also satisfied with what we saw in Baku.”
It’s still not enough to compete with Norris and McLaren for race wins, but Red Bull will bring another package of upgrades to the United States Grand Prix in Austin later this month. The extent and effectiveness of the latest updates are yet to be seen, but Verstappen hopes the worst of this F1 season – with the disastrous Monza race as the low point – is now behind us. “Yes, to be honest I think so. Hopefully we can continue to make good progress from here.”
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