Max Verstappen is hopeful that Monza has been the low point of this Formula 1 season for Red Bull as the team is trying to find its form again with its 2024 car.
When Verstappen crossed the finish line at the opening race in Bahrain with a 22-second lead, consensus in the paddock was that 2024 would be a repeat of the two previous F1 seasons. Six months later, reality is very different with Red Bull having taken a wrong turn with the RB20's development while its closest rivals, led by McLaren, have made immense progress.
Sitting down with Autosport in Singapore, Verstappen delves into the challenges that Red Bull has faced after starting off the year so well. "In the beginning I was surprised as well, but if you look at what our problems were, then I fully understand it," the Dutchman says. "At some point, we have gone in the wrong direction. The other teams have either not faced that particular point yet or they developed the car in a slightly different way. That is always difficult to assess."
With Verstappen still dominant in Japan and China, the Miami and Imola race weekends in May appeared to be a turning point, but the reigning world champion reveals he sensed much earlier than the outside world that things weren't quite right at Red Bull.
"Early on I realised that the feeling was very different from last year's car in terms of balance," he explains. "At that time our car was still a lot quicker than the others, or maybe I should say that the others were not so good back then, so at that stage we could still compensate for our difficulties. In the races after that it got worse and worse. At one point our car was just very difficult to drive and at the same time the others made real progress."
Verstappen has repeatedly stated he feels the front and the rear end of the car were not feeling connected any more and had been a visible departure from last year's machine. At the car presentation in Milton Keynes last winter, Verstappen revealed he was shocked by the stark changes when he first saw the RB20's sketches, which now raises the question whether or not the change of concept has been a mistake in hindsight: "I don't think you can tell from the outside what went wrong, so that's not the point," Verstappen dismisses. "What the car looks like on the outside is not the issue."
Does Red Bull's outdated wind tunnel play a role?
Verstappen's handling comments imply that Red Bull's problem was at least partly connected to the floor. Unintended consequences of a new floor are a headache that many teams have faced under these regulations. Mercedes struggled for two years with the ground-effect cars, while Ferrari saw high-speed bouncing return with a floor update in Barcelona. "It seems trickier than that everyone thinks," Verstappen acknowledges. "At the moment even McLaren is holding back a new floor, which they are not fully sure about. It's a lot more sensitive with upgrades than under previous regulations."
Teams are also facing difficulties correlating their sensitive floor upgrades in the wind tunnel with how the car actually behaves out in the real world, finding out the hard way that downforce in the virtual world didn't always make a car quicker on track. That appears especially relevant to Red Bull's case, given its relatively outdated wind tunnel, with the team working on plans for a new facility.
"That is a very difficult topic to talk about, but it is more complicated to get that right than with the old cars," Verstappen acknowledges, while playing down the impact of the team's wind tunnel. "It's true that we have a fairly old wind tunnel, but until this year it did everything right. Some things are just hard to understand. You see that with all the other teams as well, except McLaren. All teams have had their own problems, including teams with modern wind tunnels. I think it is just extremely difficult to fine-tune things perfectly or to get exactly the right data out of it. That can be down to a lot of things in the wind tunnel itself or how it correlates with the track."
Has Red Bull found the beginning of a solution?
For Red Bull, its main objective is to now end its run of poor form and make step-by-step progress. According to Verstappen, that upward trajectory has already started with the floor upgrade in Baku. Verstappen took the wrong set-up choice in Azerbaijan, which makes comparisons difficult, but following a difficult spell team-mate Sergio Perez was able to fight for the podium before a late clash with Ferrari's Carlos Sainz. A week later Verstappen took second in Singapore and while he was miles away from title rival Lando Norris in the McLaren, the fact that Red Bull finished second on what had been its worst track in 2023 was a positive sign.
The team only mentioned ‘subtle changes’ to the underfloor in Baku, but Verstappen is hopeful that this specific upgrade is the beginning of a solution: "Yes, it felt better. That was already a good step for us. I do think we are moving in the right direction now, it will take some time. You can't turn something like this around in one or two weeks. But I do think the team was happy with what they saw in Baku as well."
It's not enough to compete with Norris and McLaren for race wins just yet, but Red Bull will bring another update package to the United States Grand Prix in Austin later this month. The magnitude and effectiveness of its latest upgrades remains to be seen, but Verstappen is hopeful that the worst of this F1 season - with a disastrous Monza race the absolute low point - is now behind him. "Yes, I do think so to be honest. Hopefully we can continue to make good steps from here."
