Red Bull team principal Christian Horner says his team must urgently find answers to their surprisingly poor performance in qualifying for the Italian Grand Prix.
Max Verstappen, who started the first seven races of the season from pole position, was out-qualified by both McLarens, Ferraris and Mercedes. His quickest lap time in Q3 was 0.36 seconds slower than his best in Q2.Horner admitted Red Bull “simply don’t understand” the problems they have encountered this weekend. “We did a 19.6 on scrubbed and then couldn’t, on two sets of new tyres, better a 20.0.”
The performance marked a new low for the team following a series of races in which Verstappen has complained of deterioration in his car’s handling.
“The balance just isn’t there for him,” Horner told Sky. “You can hear from his comments that it’s something that fundamentally is happening that we’re not on top of at the moment.
“So we need to obviously understand it and understand why on the older tyre we were able to do that time and with two sets of new tyres we couldn’t get anywhere near it.”
“Q2 didn’t look too bad,” Horner added. “There was still the handling characteristics that Max has been talking about.
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“But then Q3, there’s something amiss that the others can all improve on new tyres, but we were miles away. So we need to understand that and understand it quickly.”
Red Bull’s efforts to cure their problems at the previous round by removing a recent upgrade did not immediately improve the car, Horner admitted.
“We’re looking at everything. We ran the older spec last weekend to see if that redressed any of the issues at all and the reality was we still had the same handling characteristics and issues with that beginning of the spec of the year. So that’s given an awful lot of data for the guys, but a lot to get our head around. And we need to address it quickly.”
The team is at risk of losing their lead in the constructors’ championship to McLaren tomorrow if their cars do not finish higher than they have qualified.
“We can see the McLarens have made a significant step over the last few races and we are now behind Ferrari and Mercedes here as well,” he said. “So there’s a lot to do.
“Obviously points are tomorrow but starting seventh and eighth, that’s going to be tough.”
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2024 Italian Grand Prix
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David BR (@david-br)
31st August 2024, 17:02
Heart-warming to see Jos Verstappen and Christian Horner in such close agreement about Red Bull needing to improve.
SteveP
31st August 2024, 17:26
To improve, they need to know what they have done to cause the problem – and:
Clearly not just that change that needs reverting.
If it were me looking for the problem, I’d go back to the exact spec of the last known good.
Tunde
31st August 2024, 20:16
Ala Windows system recovery…
SteveP
1st September 2024, 15:45
Frequently it doesn’t, but there’s a Linux tool for that.
Scalextric (@scalextric)
31st August 2024, 17:30
Need a new Newey. His absence may be significant
Nick T.
31st August 2024, 19:54
F1 will likely cease to exist before we see his like again. What interests me more is how little creativity F1 teams do in searching and/or fostering new engineering talent when they’re so vital. Interestingly, F1TV was talking about how for the past 3-4 seasons F1 teams have been using a mirror/aero invention designed by a Florida college student. A clear example they should be holding design contests to both recruit possible talent as well as encourage engineering talent generally. I’m assuming they at least do a ton of recruiting via Formula SAE.
Mayrton
1st September 2024, 8:36
Newey is given a lot of credit, maybe too much. While he was around RedBull he wasn’t always around at the team nor factory. He is not the operations guy, but more the overall designer of concepts. It is impossible that if he walks away all of a sudden the car becomes way worse. Plus he was also around when Mercedes had the best car for 8 straight years in a row. I would say the Newey argument is rather thin.
Doh
31st August 2024, 17:38
No no it’s perfectly fine take your time!
Nick T.
31st August 2024, 19:35
Too late. When you claimed Newey hadn’t been all that important in the performance of the car in a damage control/PR campaign when Newey announced he’d be leaving has cost you dearly. The guy designed your suspension and was the only one who truly understood how it and the aero worked together and therefore his constant help in setting up the car was priceless. Yet you gave him a literal incentive to not help at all in setup or updates.
Marko and Jos should also take a little bow for their power play that drove him away in the first place. I notice Jos the Elder Abuse Boss doesn’t show his face as often anymore. No surprise considering the mess he’s helped create.
Mayrton
1st September 2024, 8:44
That is an interesting combination of speculations. You might be right, but then again .. maybe not.
Nick T.
31st August 2024, 19:43
BTW, it’s ironic that RBR now talk about their chassis in the same exact terms they’ve been talking about Checo since, what, round 6? That’s one of the costs of losing sight that a GOAT designer will always be worth 20x that of a GOAT driver.
MichaelN
31st August 2024, 20:39
The fact that other cars are quicker than Red Bull now, and have been many times in the past as well, makes me question this focus on Newey. Just because we from the outside see two events: Newey announces he will leave, and Red Bull sees a slump in form, does not necessarily mean they’re connected. There are dozens of people at Red Bull in senior roles who likely have an excellent grasp of the minutiae of the car’s design. Other teams have them as well.
The RB20 seemingly has some issues that, for whatever reason, were either not apparent in the launch spec, or have come to light as the team has found itself needing to both push and improve. It’s certainly nothing unique that a team takes the wrong development turn, and ends up compensating and just making everything worse in general. I wonder how much the change in philosophy from last year to this has played into this. It was said at the start of the season that Red Bull felt it had maxed out the development of that particular path, but perhaps they’ve ended up painting themselves in a corner and now struggle to improve on their design without upsetting other parts of it. Something that we’ve also already seen in this 2022-era at other well-funded teams. Mercedes, McLaren and Ferrari have all made multiple big changes to their approach in the last few years.
David BR (@david-br)
31st August 2024, 22:15
And the brake system? Verstappen only failed to win the first 5 races because of a brake failure in Australia. Newey announced he was leaving in early May, same time as Miami, also around when the possibly non-conforming brake system (with its supposedly Verstappen-friendly oversteer) was allegedly dropped. Verstappen lost Miami because of a mixture of his own mistake, which saw his lead diminish and then the timing of a safety car, which allowed Norris to jump ahead. Next race, Imola, is when Red Bull first really looked catchable though Verstappen won. But since then the updates of other teams have steadily eroded Red Bull’s performance lead and, on current evidence, seen them surpassed.
The brake system issue has in true FIA style been successfully smothered and any issue ‘resolved’ behind the scenes. Presuming it ever existed, of course. I’m not particularly into conspiracy theories in F1 or outside, but, well, as we know, sometimes they prove true. In this case I think something more than wrong development direction is needed to explain the Red Bull slump. Or seems more likely.
Mayrton
1st September 2024, 8:50
I fully agree. While Newey might be an excellent designer, giving him God like status only derives from a narrative some want to push. It would speak against him if he needs to be around for his concept to work.
Steve (@scbriml)
31st August 2024, 22:15
Let’s not forget that the RB20 was utterly dominant at the start of the season. So much so that the much maligned Perez had three P2s and a P3 in the first five races of the season. From winning races by 20+, seconds to losing them by the same margin, in the space of ten races, is a spectacular fall from grace.
SteveP
1st September 2024, 8:23
At that time, MV was complaining about the steering IIRC, just like now.
Then something changed, MV was happy and SP was not.
and, Horner:
Beginning of the year, or beginning of the spec?