F1 | Red Bull suffers from curbs: “We don’t understand why, it takes time”

The double stage of Imola and Monaco highlighted some critical points of the Red Bull, an extremely fast car when sensitive to dips in the asphalt and when passing over curbs. These aspects had already emerged last season, but in that case the advantage over its opponents, particularly in the first part of the championship, meant that the RB19 was able to partially hide its critical issues.

Thanks to a final qualifying lap with a heart-pounding final sector, Max Verstappen was able to take pole position twelve months ago, which put him in a position to take home victory on Sunday. A year later, however, the Dutchman was unable to go beyond the final sixth place, although he was penalized by the error made in the last attempt which deprived him of the chance to exploit the improvement of the track, so much so that the Red Bull itself, from its forecasts, expected to be able to place the RB20 at least in the first two rows.

This does not mean, however, that the closeness of the opponents has led to the limitations of the 2024 single-seater being brought out even more markedly on certain aspects which, in reality, the Milton Keynes team itself hoped to have resolved. Singapore was the main example, not only at a suspension level but also aerodynamically, given the impossibility of keeping the car low as hoped, but those signs had already been highlighted, albeit to a lesser extent, in Canada and Monaco.

The weak points that emerged in Monaco and Imola

The two back-to-back routes have numerous differences, but also many points in common, in particular the various depressions in the ground and the need to make the most of the curbs. However, the Italian circuit has a greater quantity of medium-high speed corners, so the engineers and drivers on the simulator were able to find a compromise, but the Principality track is even more demanding, having to opt for an even more soft.

Although Verstappen did not complete his second attempt, in reality the Saturday telemetries still show interesting data, not so much to have precise references in terms of speed, because they present common themes throughout the race weekend.

The strengths of the RB20 emerged in the fastest sections, such as at Massenet, Casino and Tabaccaio, where the more rigid set-up and aerodynamic qualities of the single-seater helped to regain ground on its rivals, exactly as seen in Imola . However, in those sections where it is important to absorb the roughness of the asphalt and attack the curbs, such as the second sector and in braking at the Sainte Devote and the chicane after the tunnel, both Verstappen and Perez encountered numerous difficulties.

Comparison of trajectories between Verstappen and Leclerc at Monaco 2024

Photo by: Gianluca D’Alessandro

This can also be appreciated from the differences adopted in terms of trajectories in the comparison between the Red Bull driver and the poleman, Charles Leclerc. While the Ferrari standard bearer manages to be incisive when passing over the curbs of the Gran Hotel hairpin and in turn seven, thus being able to cover less road, on the other hand Verstappen has to follow different lines. Both in turn six and the following one, the three-time world champion is forced to follow a trajectory away from the curb given the risk of breaking up the car, therefore having to travel further with a consequent loss of precious hundredths on the stopwatch.

This more rigid setup than the rivals also created problems when turning on the tires on Friday, especially with the front axle, so much so that both drivers complained about the understeer and lack of precision of the front end. The work during the night allowed us to make some steps forward for Saturday, but not enough to go beyond the “elementary” limits of the car.

On the contrary, thanks to this year’s suspension changes, especially at the rear, Ferrari can have greater freedom from a setup point of view, thus having greater margin not only in managing the rigidity of the set-up, but also the heights from the ground . These progress have also had an impact on Haas, which shares the same suspension department as the SF-24: last year the American team was the protagonist of a particularly difficult qualifying, ending in the penultimate row, ahead of only Zhou Guanyu and Sergio Perez. , involved in an accident in Q1.

This year, however, the VF-24 managed to get to twelfth position with Nico Hulkenberg, not far from the top ten: “Last year the car had limits in the suspension set-up, given that we were very rigid, we couldn’t having a softer set-up and on a bumpy circuit like Monaco has a big impact, penalizing performance”, explained the German. Clearly there are also differences at an aerodynamic level, but Haas wanted to underline the progress in terms of mechanical set-up.

Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing RB20

Photo by: Andy Hone / Motorsport Images

It will take time to resolve

The fact that Red Bull has not yet managed to solve the problems has raised some alarm bells because, according to Verstappen, this shows that the engineers have not yet understood how to decipher the situation. Furthermore, Helmut Marko explained that there is no correlation between track and simulator in this specific area.

“It’s a fundamental, basic problem, so it’s not something that can be solved in a few weeks,” said Verstappen, noting that in reality these problems have been around since 2022, but the fact that rivals have come closer this This year has made them emerge even more clearly. For this reason, mindful of the fact that this is a problem that has been known internally for some time, the three-time world champion did not comment on the possibilities that these difficulties could be

“We have to understand what it is, because it’s clear that we don’t understand it. But we will work hard to find the problem and try to eliminate it. I don’t know if we will be able to do that this year, but I hope for next season.”

There will be other circuits where these difficulties on rough sections will have an impact. Singapore is the most obvious, as shown last year, but also in Canada, scheduled for next weekend, it will be important to have a car that can handle the bumps, also having different characteristics from Monaco, thanks to the many traction zones and long straights. In 2023, despite maintaining a small margin, Red Bull did not dominate with the usual advantage. For this year, some sections of the track have been resurfaced, as suggested by Christian Horner, so it will be interesting to see whether this will help the RB20.

Red Bull Racing RB20 detail

Picture of: Giorgio Piola

“There are definitely some tracks on the calendar that are not ideal for us. Any track that is bumpy or where you have to go over a lot of curbs, so street circuits, will probably be a little tricky, but hopefully by then we will have understood a bit ‘better what’s happening,’ warned Verstappen, before mentioning how, similarly, there will be tracks more favorable to the characteristics of the car than Milton Keynes, such as Barcelona.

“There are also some races that suit our car more. But we know where we need to work. There is a clear direction to work on because we lack the performance. If we can solve this problem, our car will be better overall on every single track.”