Red Bull has identified some factors to explain its issues

Red Bull continues to drop in the team hierarchy. This weekend, it appeared to be the third, or even the fourth force on the grid, competing with Mercedes and remaining quite far from Ferrari and McLaren. At the finish of the Italian Grand Prix, Max Verstappen, only finishing sixth, strongly criticized his team, suggesting that it had turned a dominant car into a monster in a matter of months. Increasingly worrying performances and issues arising throughout the races are making it challenging for Red Bull, who are trying to understand where they stem from before attempting to resolve them. Some factors seem to have been identified to explain these recent underperformances.

A precarious stability for Red Bull

First, the RB20 is now suffering from a handling imbalance, which affects the pace of the car and makes it more unpredictable for both drivers. This situation leads to other issues, notably in terms of tire wear, as highlighted by the team principal of Milton Keynes, Christian Horner. “There is a balance issue with the car that prevents the drivers from committing to the entry of corners. As soon as you stabilize the rear, you do so at the expense of the front. Then, you end up with understeer, which in turn wears out your tires.”

A problem of understeer that the Dutchman complained about in Q3, forcing him to start from seventh position on the grid, his boss pointing out the inability of his two drivers to find a connection between the front and rear of the car. However, although the Austrian team seems to have identified this problem, it does not know how to solve it. There is therefore urgency at Red Bull, and that is why it is holding a major meeting this week at the Milton Keynes factory to find solutions. According to initial information, certain key factors have already emerged as elements that may have played a role in this situation.

Risks taken in development

The RB20 seems to have suffered from its ingenuity. At the start of the season, the Austrian team, despite winning the drivers’ and constructors’ titles in the previous two seasons, surprised everyone by unveiling a car that was completely modified compared to 2023, especially in terms of aerodynamics and cooling system, drawing inspiration from the Mercedes W14. These modifications had worked well at the beginning of the season, with Red Bull dominating the top positions with a comfortable lead. However, the trend in the last races of the championship does not favor Red Bull, as McLaren has surpassed them in terms of pace. According to Christian Horner, the team may have gone a little too far with the evolutions compared to its competitors, which eventually affected its performance.

« What we really need to do is get the [aerodynamic map] working. If you look at McLaren, it looks almost like an evolution of last year’s car, a much simpler car than ours. Maybe we have gone a bit too far in complexity and maybe we need to simplify some things.
» The Briton also emphasized the lack of possible improvements due to regulations that will not change until 2026.
« We have reached the ceiling in some areas, and the car is disconnected. Sometimes, having a little less downforce but a better overall balance generates a better lap time, better degradation, and better tire management.
»

The end of the collaboration with Adrian Newey

Even if the team does not want to admit it, the departure of Adrian Newey, which should be announced at Aston Martin, has undoubtedly changed the situation in the Austrian camp. The former McLaren and Williams engineer brought his technical expertise and revolutionary ideas that have often paid off. His departure had been announced the day before the Miami Grand Prix, the first race of the season where Red Bull had been beaten by Lando Norris’ McLaren. Christian Horner nonetheless rejects this hypothesis, explaining that the problems already existed before this sudden announcement.

« We would still have had all these problems, because they were already there. And the contribution of one man could never be so dramatic so quickly. It started and really came to light in Miami, and Adrian was involved until Miami on Friday. So there is no way that this had an impact so quickly. » Horner therefore believes that Red Bull’s various problems have been around for several years but have been masked by ultra-dominant cars in recent years, and that they have become much more visible this year due to the duel with McLaren.

« It’s been a while since it’s been there,” Horner said. « Reviewing the data, there were issues at the beginning of the year, with the features. Others have obviously stepped up. And, as we pushed the package harder, it exposed the issue.”

A lack of correlation between the wind tunnel and the track

Finally, a correlation problem between the data obtained in the wind tunnel and those of the car on the track could be the cause of the difficulties encountered by the Austrian team, the lack of balance of the single-seater not appearing in its simulations, making it difficult to understand the car properly, especially since Red Bull still has its old Bedford facility which, although modified over the years, is probably not the best in the industry, especially compared to McLaren’s state-of-the-art facility.

The recent improvements aimed to put more load on the car. But it disconnected the front and the rear. And we can see it. Our wind tunnel does not say that, but the track does. So, it’s about mastering this, because obviously, when you have this problem, it means you can’t trust your tools. So you have to go back to track data and past experience.

A new facility has therefore started on the side of Milton Keynes, but for Horner, it is not the main cause of the lack of pace of the car. The wind tunnel has its limitations, that’s why we have invested in a new tunnel, he said. But this is what we have, and we have to make the most of it. I think the wind tunnel may be a contributor, but it’s not the reason we are where we are.