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Facing a true title challenge from McLaren, Red Bull is seeking some answers to their problems with the RB20
Max Verstappen, Sergio Pérez, and the entire team at Red Bull find themselves in unfamiliar territory ahead of the Italian Grand Prix.
Facing a true title challenge in the form of McLaren.
Lando Norris’ dominant win at the Dutch Grand Prix had Verstappen and other key Red Bull figures sounding the alarm not just for the Formula 1 Constructors’ Championship — where Red Bull’s lead is now down to just 30 points — but in the Drivers’ Championship as well. While Verstappen enjoys a 70-point lead in that race, Norris’ impressive win in Zandvoort put Red Bull on notice that even that lead might not be safe.
Following the Dutch Grand Prix Verstappen noted that the team has a lot of work to do on the RB20 to be able to fend off the challenge from McLaren.
While Verstappen indicated that the team needed to “understand” their current limitations, teammate Sergio Pérez believes that Red Bull now understands those issues, and can focus on solving the problem, and closing the gap.
“Well, I think what [McLaren has] shown in Zandvoort was really, really strong,” said Pérez during Thursday’s FIA Press Conference. “I think it’s been the strongest performance we’ve seen from McLaren in a while. At the same time, I think we have every hope to believe that Zandvoort is probably a really bad track for us in regards to the wind, that we suffer more than others. We’ll see. We come to a very different track and we expect them to be still the benchmark. Hopefully we can get closer and be in the mix in the race.
“The biggest thing for us is that we understand now the issues with the car. We understand them. It’s just a question of how quickly and what solutions we have to fix them,” continued Pérez. “But we exactly know where we are with the car. We know what is the issue. And hopefully in the coming weekends, even already for this one, we are able to make a lot of progress.”
Despite those struggles at the Dutch Grand Prix Pérez managed a sixth-place finish, his best result since his P4 at the Miami Grand Prix. The Red Bull driver noted that his current “understanding” of the problems with the RB20 played a role in delivering that result.
“I think understanding the issue did help a lot because I think after Miami we were a bit in limbo and we were working with a car that we didn’t understand what was going on with it,” added Pérez. “And I think once you understand the issue you are able to set up around it, to drive around it. And I think that made a bit of a difference in my side. But now the most important is to be able to fix the issue.”
Monza offers some hope for Red Bull, given their recent history at the legendary circuit. A year ago Verstappen and Pérez locked out the front row in the Italian Grand Prix, the sixth time they accomplished that feat during their impressive 2023 campaign.
But this is a new season, and the challenges posed by McLaren, Ferrari, and Mercedes are substantial.
