Paa wrote: ↑22 Jul 2024, 22:11
I'm starting to give more credibility for the Miami suspension nerf rumors. The contrast is too big between the two parts of the season. Max comfortably won all poles in early races and RB20 seemed even better than RB19.
Even if other teams improved, that does't explain the change in behaviour and driveability. See Perez performance.
Something must have happened.
They designed the car around certain suspension behaviour, and they are missing that piece now. This could have been RedBull's TD39.
Most probably even current upgrade package was planned months ago, assuming they still have that certain feature.
It is possible that now performance is simply limited by mechanics, so improving aero doesn't add usable gains.
The different car characteristics were there in the beginning of the season.
Bahrain - Stronger in qualifying pace compared to RB19, but more tire degradation.
Australia - Ferrari was as quick as Red Bull here. Perez awful tire deg.
Chinese GP - Undriveable in wet conditions, Max even spun out on a wet curb iirc (related to stiff suspension).
Japanese GP - streamlined shark mouths, and halo inlets, followed by relatively easy wins in Japan and China. These were earmarked as cooling updates which helped the car be more efficient.
Mclaren was around 4-6 tenths behind at that point with no updates. In Miami, Mclaren brought a 6 tenths update according to Stella. They overturned the gap. It's been harder for Red Bull to find as much performance as it is likely that they are hitting diminishing returns as well as being handicapped by less development time and the karting quality suspension.
Perez wasn't bad in Miami, the race where this theory suggest they were "nerfed". He qualified and finished P4.
The first questionable update was the floor edges in Imola. From there, Perez's performances went away and Max was really fighting to earn those poles. Imola, Monaco, and Canada were also bad tracks for the car. Max only got pole in Imola because of a tow. Monaco speaks for itself, jumping. Merc was much faster in Canada. Too many bumps and curbs for the RB20 to do well.
They simply haven't had an answer to the Miami update of the Mclaren which made them as good as Red Bull on Red Bull's best tracks, but without the weaknesses of the Red Bull on tracks with bumps and curbs. Red Bull already said multiple times that the suspension behavior was not predicted in the simulator. This is still a major limitation.
Also, it can't be a suspension nerf because it can't be Newey's fault. Red Bull is falling because Newey left, not because he was there...
. On the other hand, maybe Newey quit when they wouldn't let him have his suspension
.
Anyway, in case this is still not convinving, you just have to look at the behaviour of the VCARB to know that nothing has changed. That car had some of it's best results in Monaco, Imola, and Canada. Tsunoda did a 1 stop race in Hungary with no deg. If this supposed trick has carried Red Bull all this time, why have they not removed it from the VCARB which drives with the suspension of the RB19?
A lion must kill its prey.