REVEALED: Red Bull confess that the RB20 has not lived up to expectations
Red Bull's technical director Pierre Waché admitted that the RB20 has not lived up to expectations after the reigning champion team has been challenged by McLaren and Mercedes in recent weeks.
Red Bull enjoyed a strong start to its 2024 F1 title defence, winning four of the opening five rounds. It looked like that the Milton Keynes-based outfit would dominate the third year of the current era of ground-effect cars until McLaren and Ferrari achieved a sudden lift in performance.
The Scuderia won in Australia and then in Monaco while the British squad took the victory in Miami. Following a successful upgrade in Monaco, Mercedes also started to claw its way back to the sharp end of the field. So impressive was the step the Brackley-headquartered outfit took that it won three of the last four races.
At the last race before the summer break in Belgium, Verstappen started from P11 as he served a ten-place grid penalty for exceeding his power unit allocation. Although he won the Belgian Grand Prix in 2022 and 2023 from lower grid positions, the Dutchman was seemingly unable to fight his way back to the front, and finished down in P5.
Similar to the last two year, the RB20 has excelled with its aerodynamic efficiency on straights and medium-slow corners, but has lagged in certain sections compared to its three main rivals, McLaren, Mercedes and Ferrari.
Red Bull's technical director Pierre Waché admitted that the RB20 has not lived up to expectations, revealing that his team had expected the car to have stronger in high-speed corners.
“We expected a leap forward in the corners of greater speed than what we later saw on the track. In some areas we have improved, in others not as we wanted,” Waché confessed.
“Without thinking about the opponents, but only about ourselves, we expected a leap forward in the corners of greater speed than what we later saw on the track.”
Kerbs have been a weak point for Red Bull cars in the past two years: "Over the kerbs we are weak, but not since this year. Unfortunately, there were no expected improvements," noted Waché.
With Red Bull's Mexican driver Sergio Perez having struggled for outright pace in recent months, the Frenchman explained that the team is striving to find a balance that is manageable for both drivers.
"If we make the car faster in a way that Checo can use it well, it actually means that both drivers can get the most out of it. Even if the preferences are slightly different, what they need from the car does remain basically the same."
