F1 | Horner admits: “We’ve made the RB20 way too complex”

It is no secret that Red Bull is going through a difficult moment, especially because while the Milton Keynes team is still trying to understand and solve its problems, McLaren is continuing to grow and establish itself as the reference single-seater on the grid. The advantage in the constructors’ championship has now almost completely dissolved, while the advantage in the drivers’ championship, although still quite large, is not enough to sleep soundly.

The summer break was used to put ideas in order, analyze ideas and understand how to move forward, while in Monza a meeting was held with the team’s top brass to discuss the next moves. Max Verstappen has repeatedly highlighted the problems of the RB20, even in unsuspected phases of the championship, a sign that, in any case, the difficulties of this project did not arise suddenly, but the fact that the competition has approached, putting pressure, has highlighted them even more.

The Dutchman did not hide the fact that the car is currently very difficult to drive: if in some events the three-time world champion managed to patch up the situation and still achieve a good result, those same problems have thrown Sergio Perez into a crisis, author of a disappointing central part of the championship in terms of performance and results.

At the presentation of the RB20, the technicians explained how during the winter they had revolutionized a good part of the car given the fear that the competition could close the gap. Already in the first appointments, when it was possible to peek under the bonnet of the latest born in Milton Keynes, it was clear that the work done especially on the cooling system was much more complex and advanced than one could have imagined.

A great job that, on the other hand, according to Christian Horner perhaps went beyond that “margin” of safety, making it too complex to manage and creating difficulties that the team is now trying to get to the bottom of. Recently, in fact, Red Bull itself began a reverse path, removing some elements to trace the cause of the balance problems that are creating difficulties even for Verstappen himself in driving the car. From Zandvoort, in fact, the three-time world champion has a fund based on a mix of elements: the base is the same as at the start of the season, but some pieces are more recent, also because they are necessary to make the car work in symbiosis with other components.

Although Verstappen still highlighted balance issues even with this intermediate solution, Horner does not rule out that the floor could remain an issue: “No, we do not rule out that the floor could be an issue. I think you have to look at all aspects of the car. There is a balance issue with the car that does not allow the drivers to push on the corner entry,” said the Red Bull Team Principal.

“As soon as you calm down the rear, you do it by compromising the front. So you end up with understeer and, as a result, you wear the tyres more. What we need to do is get the aero map to work.”

Horner underlined how, perhaps, this RB20 is the result of an ambitious project, but also too complicated and this could have put Red Bull in difficulty in development, also because the innovations brought up to now have led the team in the wrong direction. Something unusual for Red Bull, which has made the ability to improve its cars during the season a strong point over the years. Horner maintains that McLaren has followed the path that perhaps the Milton Keynes team should have chosen in the winter and which Pierre Waché had already spoken about before the summer break: not revolutionizing the project for fear of being caught up by the opponents and continuing to develop the RB19.

“If you look at McLaren, it almost looks like an evolution of last year’s car, much simpler than ours. Maybe we’ve taken too complex an approach and we need to simplify some things,” Horner said.

Beyond this aspect, Red Bull itself has admitted on several occasions that it is experiencing correlation problems between the wind tunnel data and the track data and this is one of the factors that is contributing to the balance problems mentioned by the drivers: “The car is unbalanced, we can see it from the data. The problem is that we see it on the track, not in the wind tunnel. So it’s a question of dealing with this problem, because obviously when something like this happens it means that you can’t trust your instruments. So you have to go back to the track data and previous experience”.

“It is not uncommon that when something is not working on the car, the results from the simulation tools are different and do not converge. So you get three sets of data: the CFD, the wind tunnel and the track. Obviously the track data is the one that really counts, but to develop it is like reading the time with three different watches: you have to focus on the tool that will give you the most valuable input, and obviously the track data is the most reliable.”