2024 Oracle Red Bull Racing F1 Team

[Dee]

Marko's traditional post-race column: https://www.speedweek.com/formel1/news/ ... -Sieg.html

Interesting that Marko points to the sprint weekend as the main difficulty for Austria, rather than the track characteristic (kerbs); but after the sprint, parc fermé is re-opened and you can fix some setup woes, in my opinion finding the right setup should be less of a problem with this format compared to last year.

Agree, I can see Max winning the sprint if he gets pole and then second on Saturday which would be a good outcome. That depends on Ferrari's performance of course. Mclaren will be very strong.

[AR3-GP]

They will have too much tire degradation in Austria.

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They will have too much tire degradation in Austria.

Probably. It's been McLaren's strongest area (even visible vs the RB19 at the end of 2023) and Austria is one of the hardest tracks on tyres on the calendar.. The Sf-24 is also kind on the tyres relative to others especially when it gets hot

[Sergej]

Austria is hard on rear tyres, I think that when Max had some problem with deg this year, it was on front tyres; Bahrain was the hardest track on rear tyres we had so far and I remember a good deg for Max (true that it was long time ago though); plus, if the race is on 3 stops like last year, there will be less scope to exploit good tyre management.

[Cassius]

Austria is hard on rear tyres, I think that when Max had some problem with deg this year, it was on front tyres; Bahrain was the hardest track on rear tyres we had so far and I remember a good deg for Max (true that it was long time ago though); plus, if the race is on 3 stops like last year, there will be less scope to exploit good tyre management.

Bahrain already showed the RB20 was not as kind to its tyres as the RB19 was. Ferrari had better deg there.

[Wouter]

They started without him.

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“At the moment, it is clear that the others have made bigger progress than us. Now we still need to work on the handling of the car over the kerbs and bumps and work on the balance. We are working on that, but it cannot be solved so quickly”

https://www.formule1.nl/nieuws/max-vers ... te-zetten/

[Paa]

Do you think maybe they are too focused on this bumps&kerbs thing?
Now all evidence suggests that Red Bull has been caught in other aspects as well. McLaren is at least just as fast in a track where kerb&bump is not as significant.

Maybe they should just accept that this issue will remain for the remainder of 2024 and focus on improving the car in other directions just to squeeze few more tenths out of the package.
They have big enough margin to give up those few races where this issue could hinder them significantly and try to win the rest of the weekends.

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"I think McLaren is performing very solidly, they are good on every track," Verstappen told RacingNews365, among others. "In Barcelona you could see that they handled the tires very well and that they could push more than the rest. They did not suffer much from wear at the end of the stint, because even in the last laps Lando was catching up and I was We need to do that better, just like the well-known problems with bumps and curbs. We also need to understand that better for next year."

Verstappen is clear: Red Bull lacked speed in Spain and must solve that problem. "We had a normal weekend and were just too slow.

https://www.formule1.nl/nieuws/max-vers ... te-zetten/

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More Max:

"Last year we had a hugely dominant season, even until the last race. It's a bit more difficult now and I think we just have to be honest about that. 'We can say: it's normal', but I think it's not normal. We always want to be better and that's why I bring it up. I can say we won and it's fine, but that's not how I stand."

"If we think this is normal, people are going to catch up with us. I am always very straightforward and critical because I always want to be better, which should also be the approach of everyone.

I am very busy every day with the engineers. I try to push for faster upgrades and am allowed to be critical. If I say it's all fine and I see everyone again next Thursday, it won't go well for long."

[chrisc90]

A proper race driver mentality. Big credit to Max and the team for using that philosophy. Always analysing (sometimes mistakes) and learning where you went wrong or what you can do better.

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Dutch newspaper Telegraaf from a Van Haren article

If Red Bull can prove to Verstappen in the coming weeks that the car is being improved - several updates are coming before the summer break - then he has no reason to leave.

It sounds like RB needs to prove to max that the car will go back in the right direction

[chrisc90]

Rubbish. Max said in the press conference today he has no intention of leaving.

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Rubbish. Max said in the press conference today he has no intention of leaving.

Van Haren is basically a Max mouthpiece so it wouldn't be written like this for no reason imo

Here's the full context of that. It is said after they give the quote from the press conference, and implies Max couldn't say anything else in the context, but that important to his future is whether red bull can still move forward

... from a British journalist, the follow-up. Whether Verstappen can simply say 'yes' or 'no' about whether he'll drive for Red Bull next year.

Max: "Didn't you hear my answer to that? Okay then: yes. We're focused on next year's car, which means you'll drive for that team then."

Verstappen is in his tenth season in the king class and knows all too well how to deal with these kinds of questions. In fact, he is not saying anything new. And to that last question, 'yes' was the only right answer at the moment. Had he said 'no', the world would have been on fire. And 'yes' is also how he stood on it at the moment, and every time. And why should he add to the heat? With four races left before the summer break, Red Bull needs to show him that the current car, the RB20, is improved. That could also already become an important indication towards the future.

It's impossible to ignore that RB have not improved nearly as much as rivals and I guess this is reaching critical point ? unless it's all smoke

https://archive.ph/DVm2v#selection-753.0-782.0

[Wouter]

They started without him.

.
Well, Max was 19 minutes late because all planes at the Cannes Airport were significantly delayed for departure this morning.
Everyone was watching and filming!