F1 | Verstappen: “The rivals are getting closer, Imola remains a challenge”

Red Bull arrives at Imola with the awareness that Miami was one of those events to put in the archive, but also one of those races from which to learn for the future. Of course, without the Safety Car Max Verstappen would most likely have added another success to his list of victories during this season, but Red Bull never hid the fact that during the US weekend the setup was not ideal, so like the sensations of the Dutchman behind the wheel.

Verstappen and the engineers attempted to improve the set-up with targeted interventions, but without managing to find the ideal feeling 100%. Furthermore, further complicating the situation was a hole in the rear area of ​​the surface, caused by the lower part of the cone anchored to the asphalt on which it ended up after cutting the chicane in the second sector.

At Imola, Red Bull will present itself with a package of technical innovations, which are clearly not a response to what McLaren did in Miami, given that they have been planned for some time. After two sprint races, several teams have chosen the Italian stage as the event in which to bring the technical innovations, in order to also have free practice to carry out a comparison between the old and the new package. These are dynamics studied several weeks ago, but Verstappen wanted to underline how important it remains to bring updates with a certain consistency.

Although the RB20 maintains a certain advantage over its rivals, thanks to a consistency in performance that extends to most circuits, on the other hand its rivals are progressively getting closer, as demonstrated by Australia and Miami. When the gap narrows and Red Bull is not at 100%, it is natural that the opponents try to take advantage of it by trying to achieve victory.

“This is not an answer. These things have already been planned for some time. It’s not like a team comes in with some upgrades and we think ‘we need to put something together.’ It was already planned, we are satisfied with it, but of course we have to keep pushing because the teams behind us are definitely catching up, as we saw in Miami, when we are not able to do things 100%, they are ahead and we have to try to make sure we don’t have too many weekends like that,” said Verstappen on the eve of the Imola weekend.

“McLaren, obviously, came to Miami with a very important update, so I think we’ll only find out here how good this update is going to be, because it always takes a little bit of time to fine-tune things, but yes, we knew that. These are small details that can sometimes make a big difference in terms of lap times and I think, especially on a track like Miami, where a lot of details can make a difference and it’s very hot, so slipping with the tires can cause you to lose a lot of lap time.”

“Other teams come with updates, like Ferrari, for example. They come with very large package of updates. At the moment, therefore, it is very difficult to know where we will be,” added the three-time world champion.

Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing

Photo by: Erik Junius

After victories in 2021 and 2022, Verstappen is looking for a hat trick in Imola. Some changes to the track will add some more elements to the ride, such as the fact that asphalt escape routes have been removed in favor of gravel, or the removal of very high curbs. This last aspect will play a very important role in the weekend, because in Imola tackling the curbs well can save you some lap time.

“Imola is a rather complicated track, with many high-speed corners, curbs, they have removed some bollards, so we have to see how the way of driving will evolve. And also the weather, it’s not an easy weekend, so there are a lot of things we need to sort out,” Verstappen said. In 2023, although it dominated far and wide, the RB19 was not the best performing car when dealing with curbs and slow corners, an aspect on which the engineers worked in the winter. For the RB20, therefore, Imola could represent an interesting test to understand the progress on a track where the use of curbs can make the difference.

“When we last raced at Imola in 2022, it was not possible to be aggressive in many corners due to the bollards. So I think naturally they can be approached differently now. And I think it’s more pleasant, because it makes the track more alive. It reminds me a bit of the F3 days, it was a lot of fun. So yeah, let’s see how it goes. I’m not sure that with the cars we have now we can be aggressive, because we lap low anyway, but we can certainly be more aggressive than the last time we came here.”