By Carlo Platella
Despite being spoiled by the more loaded setup of their opponents, the 6 tenths put in front of everyone by Verstappen in qualifying on the wet at Spa confirm that Red Bull still has one of the best cars on the grid. There is no doubt, however, that the enormous advantage that the Milton Keynes team enjoyed until the start of the season has now disappeared. The fight with McLaren, Ferrari and Mercedes is exposing the limitations of the RB20calling into question the confirmation of the world champions, especially in the constructors’ championship.
The stages of development
They haven’t been sitting idly by since the start of the year in Milton Keynes. The first updates to the underbody and bodywork arrived at Suzuka on the RB20, followed by work in similar areas at Imola and then in Spain, up to a further underbody at Silverstone and a new front wing in Budapest. But to hear Verstappen, the impression is that the changes have upset the balance of the car: “At the beginning of the year I felt really comfortable with the car. It was probably even more natural for me to drive than the previous one. After a few races, however, we had weekends where the car was more complicated and it was difficult to find the ideal working window”.
The development set by Red Bull was not aimed at improving peak load and aerodynamic efficiency. On the contrary, the aim was to lower lap times by intervening on the aerodynamics to improve passages in slow corners, as well as compromising the suspension calibration. A very delicate update program therefore, not free from side effects. “The more you push with the development of the car, the more complicated the behavior becomes. It’s what you see from others”the words of technical director Pierre Waché.
Like other teams, Ferrari and Aston Martin above all, Red Bull finds itself having to deal with a development that has altered the initial aerodynamic characteristics. Verstappen complains about a car with a front disconnected from the rear, the result of an understeering balance that is especially evident in the difficulties when entering a curve. Perez, however, is no exception: “I think on some weekends we introduced somethingwhether it’s with the tires, the setup or an upgrade. These cars are so sensitive that this has narrowed the operating window a lot.”
The weight of pressure
The RB20’s driving difficulties have two origins. On the one hand, the updates have brought benefits on the stopwatch, but at the cost of altering the balance and driving characteristics. Adjusting the set-up to bring the car back into the optimal operating window is increasingly difficult, with Verstappen who on more than one occasion has found the right balance with the set-up at the last possible moment before qualifying.
On the other hand, the pressure exerted by the recovering opponents, McLaren above all, only exacerbates the difficulties, forcing Red Bull to push itself ever further to the limit. “We need more performance”reflects Verstappen. “That’s because if you have a higher-performance car, it usually becomes better to drive too. You don’t need to push it to the limit so much every time”. A valid consideration not only for those who drive, but also for the aggressiveness in the set-up and developments, leaving the comfort zone to find more performance: “If at a certain point your car is no longer the dominant force, you have to try to be even more on the limit. At that point you are more likely to risk losing it. Its peak performance is in a narrower range, it is easier to have difficulties”.
Reliability concerns
As with its predecessor, the development of the RB20 has been very focused on the bodywork and cooling system. Reliability and performance in this case are two sides of the same coin, as evacuating heat more efficiently also ensures greater aerodynamic efficiency. In particular, in Budapest it arrived a new body three weeks earlycompletely changed as regards the upper part of the bonnet. At Spa Verstappen returned to the previous specification, a sign not so much of a step backwards, but rather that the innovations were conceived as adaptations to certain tracks. “Yes, some parts are designed for particular circuits”confirms Verstappen. Already in Budapest, technical director Waché anticipated the possibility of alternating the two bodies depending on the tracks: “If the characteristics and cooling needs of the track push us to change, we will do so.”
When done by Red Bull, however, it does not appear as an aggressive strategy, but rather a remedy for some overheating problems. In fact, Milton Keynes has not developed a more efficient bodywork to be used on the fastest tracks. On the contrary, the new bonnet is designed for the hottest and most tortuous circuits, where managing internal temperatures is more difficult, confirming the rumours from earlier in the year that the RB20’s extreme packaging created overheating problems. The Budapest development is therefore not to be seen as an opportunity to find performance, but rather a necessity to ensure reliability. Although by regulation they do not count towards the hours spent in the wind tunnel, the updates to the cooling system have nevertheless absorbed development resources, conditioning the other updates.
The RB20 Go-Kart
To confirm themselves as champions in both championships, Red Bull will have to deal with another weak point of the RB20. This is the difficulty in absorbing kerbs and bumps, especially at low speeds, highlighted in the difficult weekend in Monte Carlo.In the second sector we were in a bad position, we couldn’t touch the kerbs or they would immediately fall apart and we would lose a lot of time.”, Verstappen’s story at the time. “We tried to soften and tighten, but the car was like a go-kartit jumped a lot, it didn’t absorb any curbs, bumps or changes in slope”.
This is no small matter for Red Bull, given that the 10 tracks on the calendar still include Singapore and the bumpy Austin. This is a fundamental problem for the RB20, inherent in the basic concept inherited from the previous cars. “We have had this problem since 2022but in recent years we had such an advantage that it hid it a little”, Verstappen said in April. Words that underline once again how the pressure of closer competition is exposing all of Red Bull’s imperfections.
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