Christian Horner reveals Red Bull’s balance issues first started during Max Verstappen’s dominant 2023 campaign.
Christian Horner explained that balance problems with the car started appearing in 2023, with initial signs during the race in Austin.
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Christian Horner and Max Verstappen (Via: Imago)
Red Bull has been stuck in a vicious cycle of problems in 2024. They dominated at the start of the season giving the hints of continuing the 2023 success. However, as the season progressed the car came up with issues one at a time with Sergio Perez performance drop in the first half and now Max Verstappen. The major problem lies in the car’s balance and Christian Horner believes these problems with the RB20’s balance began in 2023.
Christian Horner explained that the balance problems with the car have been around for a while. When they first looked at the data, they noticed these issues early in the year. As they pushed the car to perform better, these balance problems became more noticeable. The more they tried to make the car faster and more competitive, the more these underlying balance issues were highlighted.
It's been there for some time. Going through the data, there was issues there at the beginning of the year, with the characteristics. As we've pushed the package harder, it has exposed the issue.Christian Horner told Autosport
Horner explained that the balance problem first appeared in the data from 2023, with the race in Austin showing the issue for the first time. Although Verstappen had reported the problem while still winning races in the first half of the 2024, it seemed Red Bull overlooked it. Horner believes that this issue is a characteristic of the car that needs to be fixed.
If you go back in the data, there were a few races last year where we started to see this – in Austin and so on.Max Verstappen added.
Christian Horner believes resolving balance issues entirely depends on the efforts of the Red Bull factory
Christian Horner emphasized that the team needs to fix the car’s balance as soon as possible. The resolution of this issue depends entirely on the team working at the Milton Keynes factory. Horner stressed the importance of working hard to resolve the problems before the next race in Baku. With this weekend’s race paused, Red Bull has an opportunity to focus on its development.
So, I think it's a characteristic that we know we have to address. And it's full focus in the factory of Milton Keynes to do that.Max Verstappen stated.
Certainly, Red Bull knows where the problem lies and is optimistic about fixing it before the next race. Fans hope the Austrian team can return to their early-season dominance and start winning races again. They expect Max Verstappen to secure pole position in qualifying and perform strongly.
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Gaurang Kadam
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