By Carlo Platella
Red Bull has two faces in Baku. On one side there is Max Verstappen who crossed the finish line in fifth place, held back by an unfortunate set-up choice that amplified the nervousness of the RB20 on the bumps. The world champion is opposed by Sergio Perez, who had been fighting for the victory for a long time before the final accident, providing encouraging feedback on the updates. The new floor is the first countermeasure to the balance issues started in early 2023but which Red Bull, blinded by Verstappen’s successes, has long ignored.
The turning point: Barcelona 2023
The RB20’s limits arise from the updates that have compromised its driveability and balance, with difficulty entering corners and a general strong instability. The dynamics are amplified in the race, when repeated corrections on the steering wheel and sliding cause the tyre temperatures to soar, accelerating their degradation. Already at Monza, Christian Horner had revealed how character flaws were present when Red Bull was still the car to beat: “If you pay attention, some of these problems were already there at the beginning of the year, even when we were winning by 20 seconds. Digging into the data, we started noticing this already in some races last year”.
In Baku the Team Principal provided further details, explaining to Cars, Motors and Sports how it all started with the fund introduced in June 2023, which began to change the aerodynamic characteristics of the project: “We traced the development history and it turned out that the first mistake was the fund introduced in Barcelona in 2023. It was also the Grand Prix in which Perez started to have problems with the car. Simply we didn’t take it seriously because Max kept winning”.
The problem therefore does not arise from the alleged revolution between 2023 and 2024, given that the RB20 has always been presented as an evolution of the previous concept. Rather the wide margin by which Verstappen won last season did not encourage the drivers and team to push the package to the limit, without therefore having to deal with the problems of a development that was slowly altering the RB19’s driveability. The decision to stop the updates in September 2023 to focus on the next project has contributed to all this, without an on-track feedback of the work carried out in the factory.
Verstappen Effect
If the problem took a long time to manifest itself, it is also due to Super Max’s particular driving style. “I don’t know a fast car that understeers”, the world champion once said, summarizing his preference for cars that are extremely sensitive and reactive on the front, ready to respond to the slightest input on the steering. The case of Sergio Perez is different, having difficulty pushing fast but unstable cars to the limit on the corners, with the sensation of being on a razor’s edge.
“Different driving styles lead to different effects,” commented the Mexican in Baku. Checo is referring to Verstappen’s ability to manage the nervousness of the car, exploiting its very high reactivity, while Perez with the same behavior was starting to go into crisis. The updates brought to the RB20 however, most recently the floor introduced this year at Silverstone, have definitively disconnected the front from the rear. The problems have thus amplified to such an extent that not even the Dutchman has been able to manage them. “There is no doubt that both drivers would benefit from greater stability”commented technical director Pierre Wache in Budapest, indicating a common basis for the problems of Perez and Verstappen.
The first countermeasure arrived in Baku, with a major modification to the diffuser where a powerful tail was added to the chassis keel. Although the Azerbaijani track is not very indicative for the balance window of a car, as the corners are enclosed in a spectrum of similar speeds, the feedback was encouraging, even for Verstappen himself.: “The changes we made to the car were positive.. Obviously, however, we also need to find the right setup. I think we are going in the right direction.”
Baku’s problems
The anonymity into which the world champion fell in Baku therefore had different origins. Both Red Bulls appeared convincing until the last free practice session, but Verstappen paid the price too much correction to the trim before qualifying: “The problem I experienced in the race, but already from qualifying, is that the car jumped a lot at the rear in the slow corners. The wheels literally came off the ground and lost grip with the asphalt. Because of all those jumps and slides the tires obviously overheated”.
It is plausible that the world champion has focused on a greater rigidity of the rear suspension compared to his teammate, in an attempt to impart more rotation to the car and combat the understeer that Verstappen is particularly intolerant of. The excessive mechanical rigidity has compromised the digestion of kerbs and bumps, causing the rear to slide. In the race, once the Dutchman reached Norris’ dirty air, the sliding became more pronounced, remaining stuck behind the McLaren and inevitably damaging the tyres. The performance in Baku is therefore the result of an incorrect choice of set-up. Among the leading cars, however, Red Bull is the one that has the most difficulty digesting the irregularities of the city asphalt. A problem that already emerged in Monte Carlo and which could be particularly critical in Singapore.
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