F1 | Red Bull: it’s not just the hybrid that worries Verstappen

It’s raining in Montreal, but on Red Bull the rain is heavier. Three months ago, after two ‘doubles’ in the first two races, hypothesizing the world champion team in difficulty would have been a crazy fantasy, and yet, this is what we saw on Friday in Montreal.

The track conditions did not help the teams looking for answers (and Red Bull is among them), postponing everything to the FP3 session, assuming the weather grants a respite. In recent years, Red Bull’s opponents have used the expression “short blanket” to describe the difficulties in managing to cover all the critical issues of their single-seaters. Now, the same words are heard in the Red Bull garage.

In Montreal, as already seen in Monaco, Verstappen and Perez will have to check whether the compromise found by the Red Bull technicians after the Monaco weekend will be enough to aim for the top positions. Both drivers ask for a more predictable car when they have to attack the curbs, but softening the suspension involves a loss of downforce. If, on the other hand, the map is respected to have maximum efficiency in terms of downforce, the suspension travel is reduced, making the car’s reactions on the curbs less predictable.

According to Verstappen, by working on the setup the problem can be alleviated, but not solved. “I think it will be necessary to intervene on the design of the single-seater – explained Max – I expect improvements during this season but the definitive solution will probably only come with next year’s car”.

Helmut Marko is more optimistic: “We encountered problems in Monaco and I hope we can make some progress with a new set-up we have here in Montreal. Although the first two free practice sessions revealed little, when Max was on track he set the best sector 2, so it looks promising. I think our problem is a combination of various aspects and we have changed some of these after Monaco. But it takes some time, you can’t solve these things in a week.”

During the FP2 session, after just four laps, Verstappen returned to the pits complaining of a burning smell coming from the car. The technicians spent fifteen minutes making the single-seater safe, then in the evening Christian Horner confirmed that the problem was found in the energy recovery system, without the involvement of the other components of the new power unit.
“It’s not ideal – commented Verstappen – I would have liked to do more laps, given that there was the possibility of doing a bit more in the dry. But the important thing is to understand exactly what happened and not have other implications for the rest of the weekend.”

Red Bull hopes to regain technical reliability, just as it hopes that qualifying and the race will take place in the wet, conditions in which no one can use the curbs. “I think a wet race would help solve our problems – concluded Marko – and obviously Max is in a class of his own in those conditions. So, yes, I hope the rain returns, both in qualifying and in the race.”