Racing Bulls help Red Bull solve its problems on bumpy tracks
Red Bull hopes that the good form of the B team, Racing Bulls, can help it find the answer to why its current single-seater suffers so much on bumps and vibrators, and particularly on city circuits.
The world champion team experienced difficult moments during the Monaco Grand Prix, where Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez struggled to extract speed from their RB20. The car behaved unpredictably at times and was not comfortable on the bumps and curbs, key elements for performance on the Monte-Carlo circuit.
The head of the Red Bull team, Christian Horner, stated that the team needed to quickly find answers on what was happening. Help could come from Racing Bulls, which uses the Red Bull suspension from the 2023 season and has not encountered similar issues in Monaco.
Interrogated about the plan implemented by Red Bull to get back in the lead, Horner declared: “A lot of attention will now be focused on why we have had these behavior problems and why the car is struggling on the curbs and big borders. The Racing Bulls F1 is using our suspension from last year and didn’t seem to have the same problems. So, we need to understand if it’s something we introduced.” he explains, referring to the technical innovations in the chassis and suspensions.
« First of all, it is understanding what the problem is. Once we have done that, we can look for what the appropriate solution is.
Nothing new for Red Bull.
Max Verstappen suggested that the weaknesses in behavior on bumpy circuits have been a feature of Red Bull for some time, but were only recently discovered by competitors when the pack closed in.
We saw it in Singapore last year too. So we have another example of this. We know it’s an aspect of the car that we need to work on. We have lessons to learn from this weekend and problems to solve with the car obviously,” he adds.
Currently, the pressure on the leader, Red Bull, is at its maximum, especially with the approach of the next race in Montreal, another urban circuit. The ability to navigate the curbs well is crucial for a good lap time, but this year, with a brand new tarmac on Saint Helen’s Island, this effect may be mitigated.
He said, “It’s a track where we have performed well in the past. They have resurfaced the entire circuit again, so let’s see. But Ferrari and McLaren, they are fast.”
« It was inevitable that there would be convergence. Of course, this weekend was difficult, but we are still leading both championships. Obviously, we will learn from this weekend and apply it to the next race.
