Red Bull is sailing the high seas amidst performance issues with the RB20 and the Constructors’ Championship in McLaren’s hands. Horner: “The first mistake occurred with a floor update in Barcelona in 2023.”
The Azerbaijan Grand Prix handed McLaren the lead in the Constructors’ Championship with a 20-point advantage over Red Bull. With Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri closing in on Max Verstappen race after race, ready to snatch his fourth world title, concerns at Milton Keynes are not easing. This is compounded by Sergio Pérez’s accident during the penultimate lap of the Baku race, which also involved Carlos Sainz’s car number 55, ending the race for both drivers.
Red Bull team principal Christian Horner has expressed his concerns about the damage sustained by the Mexican driver’s car during the recently concluded weekend: “Spare parts are scarce. We will need to work five days in the factory to have the necessary parts ready in time for Friday in Singapore. Checo kept the two leaders ahead of him until the end. Even though he spent the entire time in turbulent air, the tires held up. He was in contention for the podium when Sainz forced him off. A second place was possible because Leclerc’s rear tires were completely worn out.“.
What has been emerging in the recent races is a RB20 that is far from competitive compared to last year’s dominance, despite the updates Red Bull brought to the Azerbaijan circuit. According to the German publication AMuS, Horner revealed that the first problems had already surfaced during last year’s Spanish weekend, but the dominance of the three-time world champion led the team to set the issue aside.
“.We traced the development history and discovered that the first mistake occurred with a floor update in Barcelona in 2023. It was also the Grand Prix where Checo started having problems with the car. We didn’t take it too seriously because Max kept winning“said the British team principal.
Max Verstappen and the RB20 in Baku: “By the time we found the problem, it was too late”
The dominance of last season’s Formula 1 championship now seems like a distant memory for the Milton Keynes team: indeed, Max Verstappen’s unremarkable weekend was proof of that. The Dutchman’s RB20 had differences compared to his teammate’s, which proved decisive in terms of performance: “Max wore out his tires much faster than Checo in traffic,” Christian Horner stated, expressing his surprise.
For the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, a small gurney flap was installed on car number 11 driven by Sergio Pérez. This small vertical winglet at the rear end of the rear wing provided a bit more aerodynamic downforce. Verstappen made sure to have his say, then delivered a blow to the Woking team: “On Friday, I was satisfied with my car. All the setup changes we initially made seemed to be heading in the right direction. Before qualifying, we took an additional step, but it turned out to be one step too far. We paid the price for that risk. By the time we found the problem, it was too late. We win and lose as a team. The fight for the title is not lost yet.”.
Foto: X.com, Oracle Red Bull Racing.