Max Verstappen believes Red Bull can address its car’s key weakness without compromising its strengths.
The team have won six of the nine grands prix so far this year, all of which Verstappen has scored. However Verstappen has regularly complained about his car’s ride in recent races, notably in Monaco where he was confined to sixth place in qualifying and the race.“We’re struggling a lot with the kerbing and the bumps,” said Verstappen after Sunday’s race. “So we definitely have an area we can work on and definitely improve the car by quite a big margin if we get that under control.”
However he is confident Red Bull won’t have to trade away what has made the RB20 so competitive in order to fix its biggest problem.
“I really think that we can solve this without influencing any other part of the car,” he said.
Verstappen described the car’s kerb-riding performance as “non-existent” in Sunday’s race. “We know that this is a weakness and I also know that we are flat-out working on it to try and fix it, because I really feel like it’s quite a big performance limitation for us at the moment.”
The upcoming races take place on circuits where aerodynamic performance are more important than ride, which should suit Red Bull better.
“Naturally I’m also looking forward to some tracks maybe where we don’t really need to take too many kerbs or too many bumps,” he said. “You can see already, every weekend so far, some teams are a bit stronger at particular tracks, and I guess that in a way, of course, makes it also very exciting.”
During Sunday’s race Verstappen told his team “the ride is very, very bad – it’s like a locked suspension again.” Following his win, Red Bull team principal Christian Horner referred to Verstappen’s regular description of his car’s ride, saying the result was: “Not bad for a kangaroo.”
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MacLeod (@macleod)
13th June 2024, 7:42
So it looks like a suspension feature as that is different from the RB19. So a change in the suspension is going needed I wonder when they have a solution for that as it’s easy.
Christopher Rehn (@chrischrill)
13th June 2024, 7:46
It’s easy to revert to an old spec, but there are probably benefits to this new setup that they don’t want to lose. Max says they can fix it without losing their strengths, meaning there are strengths to the current solution too. F1 will always be a matter of trading X for Y to find the best complete package.
An Sionnach
13th June 2024, 8:09
Max’s qualifying time in Canada this year was faster than last year. I wondered could they just use last year’s car. If they did that, they’d be further back.
BMW P85 V10
13th June 2024, 9:00
Did they use same tire compounds this year?
notagrumpyfan
13th June 2024, 9:23
Did they have the same tarmac this year?
Jere (@jerejj)
13th June 2024, 10:01
BMW P85 V10 – Yes
notagrumpyfan – No, but weather differences nullify this aspect.
Jere (@jerejj)
13th June 2024, 10:01
An Sionnach Of course, faster since last season’s qualifying was entirely wet.
An Sionnach
13th June 2024, 20:25
Good point. I compared one of the rounds where the times were close. I just looked at Monaco and it might have been that one. It’s a good example as it might be the most extreme example of a track that Red Bull would do poorly at. The best lap from Max in any session of qualifying was:
2023: 1:11.365
2024: 1:10.567
Does that suggest that the new car is actually faster seeing as Max was 8/10ths quicker?
MacLeod (@macleod)
13th June 2024, 13:49
That was not the RB19 when they finished the season as that was a upgraded one compaired with one in Canada 2023. So very hard to compaire.
pcxmac (@pcxmac)
13th June 2024, 9:00
Dont you love how curbs were invented during the Miami GP. man, forget sprinklers, curbs FTW.
Nick T.
13th June 2024, 11:13
Without Newey, who designs new as well as updated aero and suspension (+ more) in tandem, we’ll see if they can actually fix it. AN will likely be chuckling more and more on the inside as they become less and less competitive since cutting him out of the design process and putting out the message that he wasn’t really integral to their current success.
DB-C90 (@dbradock)
13th June 2024, 11:29
You beat me too it.
I doubt it’s any coincidence that they’re struggling to maintain their dominance now they’ve sidelined Newey.
Nick T.
13th June 2024, 11:43
The sooner this generational prodigy among “just” the brilliant or to put it more crassly, man among boys, is gone, the better for the sport. At the very least I’m still holding out hope he doesn’t actually go to Ferrari.
Mayrton
13th June 2024, 12:36
I think he might be overrated. Politics of regulations plays a more important rule than design. Mercedes strength was their engine and they got a full regulatory period in their favour. Aero is Newey’s strength and they had a brief stint now with favourable regulations. No matter how brilliant your inside man is, it is the lobby that gets the trophies in. All to my dislike by the way.
Nick T.
13th June 2024, 22:42
Do I need to copy + paste his history again? Besides a two-year Renault run (and Newey’s car was still the fastest during that time, but hampered by unreliable engine and gearbox), only designs that were created by Brawn have won championships besides Newey. Almost every feature of the modern F1 chassis that we take for granted were designed by Newey. If anything, Newey is underrated. And I say this as someone who wasn’t a fan of single a team he’s worked at besides Williams.
SteveP
14th June 2024, 6:53
Mercedes could, more accurately, be viewed as an interlude between Red Bull and Red Bull.
People seem to forget that first period of RB dominance.
pcxmac (@pcxmac)
14th June 2024, 1:31
the fact that they used Newey’s departure (a narrative) to precipitate a change in tire formula, is almost proof positive that the Pirelli are picking winners and losers. Car’s don’t loose that kind of advantage in 1-2 weeks. But tires can be formulated and produced in just that span of time. Only people who believe what their televisions spit out to them as the truth, will cling to the trigger narrative that Newey was the only reason RBR are winners.
SteveP
14th June 2024, 6:47
That’s a bit Q-Anon level, isn’t it?.
Ever considered that
1. It’s been a more gradual drop-off than just a few weeks
2. Newey leaving and not being involved in the upgrades is a factor but not the only factor
3. Zak Brown’s comments about an increased number of CV’s coming his way, and the toxic atmosphere, has at least a grain of truth
So, perhaps the root cause is Horner ‘playing the field’ and producing that ‘toxic’ atmosphere – various people don’t want to be there and are in various stages of departure. Some may still be there physically, but checked out mentally.
Nick T.
14th June 2024, 10:40
Look at many of his other posts. It’s all basically conspiracy theories about why Lewis Hamilton isn’t dominating right now and accusing of F1’s invisible powerbrokers of trying to keep the smaller teams from being competitive.
Nick T.
14th June 2024, 10:43
Let me add, I never said Newey was “the only reason RBR” was winning. No, there were a lot more factors than that. He’s just the most important factor.