Red Bull has won every race of the 2023 season, with the exception of a single Grand Prix, the Singapore round, where the victory went to Carlos Sainz. Fully aware that repeating such an exceptional championship as the one in 2023 would be complex, in Milton Keynes they still decided to make significant changes to the car over the winter, making significant changes to its RB20, in particular to the cooling system.
After a few races, the history of the world championship seemed almost to be able to get closer to that of 2023, with a dominating Red Bull and all the opponents behind it. Yet, looking back, that very competitive RB20 now seems like a mirage, because in the meantime a McLaren has come forward which, thanks to excellent development work, has been able to position itself as the reference on the grid in several Grands Prix.
The most critical aspect is that the updates brought so far do not seem to have guaranteed the hoped-for progress. It is no coincidence that Max Verstappen had defined the Hungarian package as one of the most crucial of the season, a sort of crossroads to understand how the rest of the world championship would go. Of course, the large advantage in terms of the standings is a reassuring element, but it is clear that against this McLaren something more is needed, not only in terms of performance, but also in terms of pure balance, which is the aspect that the Red Bull drivers have complained about the most.
Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing RB20
Photo credit: Red Bull Content Pool
Basically, there are two problems now: on the one hand, the lack of pure performance, but on the other, the feeling of always having to be on the limit, because over the course of the season it has become increasingly difficult to find the ideal balance, due to some problems both related to the complexity of the RB20 and the setups that came out of the simulator. In the first races of the season, as explained by Verstappen, the Red Bull seemed to be a simpler car to set up than the RB19 but, as the championship went on, the limits emerged, especially in terms of balance.
On several occasions the team was forced to throw away the preparation work done in the factory and have to start the search for the setup directly on the track, effectively wasting part of Friday. The Dutchman, in fact, hoped not only that this package could guarantee better performance, but also that it would make it easier to find the ideal balance during the weekend, so as to be able to work on the details from FP1 instead of having to take a step back to understand how to make the RB20 more comfortable and less on the limit.
Speaking exclusively to the Dutch edition of Motorsport.comRed Bull technical director Wache said the team expected the 2024 car to be stronger in some areas, especially high-speed corners, based on simulation data. When asked if the RB20 was as good as hoped, he replied: “I would say no. We’ve improved on last year, for sure, but in some areas we haven’t achieved what we expected.”
“Especially in the high-speed corners we expected a bit more than what we have. Without thinking about the competitiveness of the car, so just based on our references, we expected a bit more with our instruments.”
Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing RB20
Photo credit: Red Bull Content Pool
“In the medium and low speed corners we have improved a lot compared to last year. In the high speed corners we were a bit weaker than last year compared to the competition. In the kerb riding we are clearly weak, but we were already weak last year. I think we have not made the improvements we expected in this area.”
Indeed, while it is true that Red Bull still maintains an advantage in the fastest corners, this margin is not as large as in the past, given that McLaren, but also Ferrari and Mercedes, have come closer in 2024. The problem is that, at the same time, despite the improvements in the slow corners, the step forward has not been large enough to counter that of McLaren, which in those two areas seems to have made an even bigger leap.
When asked why Red Bull’s predictions of where their car would perform well were lower than expected, Wache explained that it could be related to correlation issues. Verstappen also pointed out in Hungary that perhaps even the simulator wasn’t producing precise set-ups: “I think some things could be related to correlation.”
“We are using a rather old wind tunnel and it may also be linked to the reduced capacity due to our position in the championship. [con le restrizioni dei test in galleria del vento] and maybe also to the fact that this is the third year with this type of regulations,” Waché explained.
Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing RB20
Photo by: Erik Junius
But regardless of whether Red Bull’s progress hasn’t reached the level it had hoped for, Waché says the team expected rival teams to catch up from the start of 2024 as teams converged on car designs.
“To be honest, we expected the opponents to come first. When we started the 2022 season, we didn’t have the fastest car. Ferrari had the fastest car at the start of 2022. We expected a great competition in 2023, but that was not the case.”
“For 2024 too, we expected the competition to be there more or less from the start, because the performance you can get with the car is limited with the same regulations. After the first four or five races the others came back, maybe a little late, but we expected it from the start.”
“The limitations that you have with these regulations are quite high and what you can find to make more progress becomes increasingly difficult. So it is almost certain that the opponents will return at some point.”
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