What’s happening to Red Bull? The team that dominated the first four of the five 2024 races is in crisis. Max Verstappen has not won in five GPs and at Monza, the temple of speed, the RB20 is only seventh on the starting grid with the three-time world champion with a gap of almost seven tenths, while the top rivals (McLaren, Mercedes and Ferrari) were gathered within just over a tenth.
The drop in performance was shocking as the Milton Keynes team struggled on the very surfaces where they dominated. Verstappen complained about his car’s balance issues, but analysing top speeds at the Monza speed trap made it clear that the RB20 was suffering from excessive drag.
Red Bull RB20: here is the wing with the crescent flap seen at Spa but previously cut for Monza and without nolder
Photo by: George Piola
Low efficiency and too much drag. An aspect antithetical to the team’s philosophy. And it is surprising how the Red Bull technicians have tried to reduce the rear load by also removing the nolder from the mobile flap that had already been further trimmed compared to the same version that was seen at Spa-Francorchamps.
If Ferrari has decided on a real “Monza package” for the long straights of Brianza, if Mercedes has introduced a specific wing for the Stradale, Red Bull has evidently made the wrong choices, especially in the rear wing.
If we leave aside Fernando Alonso’s Aston Martin, which, thanks to a slipstream, reached 353.5 km/h, it becomes interesting to discover that Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez are respectively second to last and last with 347.2 km/h and 346.8 km/h, while Lando Norris recorded 349 km/h. It must be said that the difference with the poleman was not striking because the McLaren had a bit of derating before braking at the Prima Variante, but the numbers become important in comparison with Charles Leclerc’s Ferrari, which is 6 km/h faster at the Prima Variante and the Roggia and 5 km/h before the Ascari.
Red Bull, apparently for budget cap reasons, has decided not to invest in a specific wing for Monza, hoping to be able to use the configuration with the wave flap seen at Spa-Francorchamps. A decidedly wrong strategic choice, at least for qualifying, which at least in part penalized Max’s performance. In reality, the Milton Keynes team is also starting to feel the limitations of the CFD and wind tunnel work, so choices must be made that can affect the development of the RB20.
Red Bull RB20 front wing comparison: Monza one on the left
Photo by: George Piola
It should not be surprising, therefore, to have seen the rear wing with the flap cut into a crescent, a solution that did not pay off. In an attempt to find a good balance, Red Bull also adapted the front flap with a similar design and as the front wing, the one with the regulator of the last element placed towards the side bulkhead was chosen.
The Milton Keynes team, used to doling out changes only when their rivals were getting close, has never paid much attention to a package for Monza, but it is possible that this strategy could change in the future, especially if balance issues were added to top speed problems. In FP3 we saw some ballast being moved around in the nose of the RB20 in the hope of finding a balance that Verstappen has been vainly looking for for a few races…
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