Red Bull Chief reveals reason for ignoring Max Verstappen’s complaints in 2024
Pierre Wache lifted the curtains on the reason behind ignoring Max Verstappen's incessant complaints about the RB20.
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Max Verstappen (via Red Bull)
Red Bull suffered from woeful performances in the 2024 season despite Max Verstappen lifting the drivers’ title. The team lost the constructors’ championship to McLaren without a chance of contention. Amidst the problems, Milton Keynes was suspected of ignoring Verstappen’s complaints about the chassis.
Pierre Waché, Red Bull Racing’s technical director clarified the situation and revealed the reasons behind ignoring Verstappen’s feedback on the chassis. Wache highlighted that the team was aware of the balancing problems with the RB20. After being closely challenged by McLaren over the European races, Red Bull figured that the underlying issue was to go faster on the grid.
I think we did see it [the balance problems], just the car was fast and so we didn’t want to change it dramatically. When we went back to Europe and were challenged more by McLaren, it became more and more clear that this was one of our biggest problems to go faster.
Pierre Wache told Motorsport.com
Wache recalled that after these issues, Max Verstappen became more vocal about the problems in the chassis and felt unheard. The Frenchman noted that the Dutchman was ‘shouting’ internally for many months about the balancing issues in the RB20. Regardless, the team ignored the feedback which cost the team ‘dearly’ in terms of competing with the rivals.
It was then that Verstappen revealed that he did not feel heard within the team. Indeed, Verstappen had been shouting internally for months that the balance was causing problems, but nobody seemed to really do anything about it because the car was still fast. This cost Red Bull dearly for the rest of the season, finishing third in the constructors’ standings, while Verstappen just managed to hold on and clinch the world drivers’ title.
Pierre Wache added
Max Verstappen ‘requested’ a meeting after the Hungarian GP
Max Verstappen lost the podium finish at the Hungarian GP after a collision with Lewis Hamilton over the race. Regardless, the pace of the chassis was mediocre at best since he finally finished P5 in the pecking order. Pierre Wache pointed out that Verstappen requested the team of engineers to meet after the race. The Frenchman reckoned that performances improved only in a ‘narrow window’ that varied over the race weekends.
After the Hungarian Grand Prix, the engineering team met, at Verstappen’s request. Something had to change. Since that meeting, things improved, but the ‘window’ in which the car was well-balanced remained very narrow. It made it vary from weekend to weekend how good Red Bull was.
Pierre Wache noted
Red Bull has the mountainous task of working on improving the pace for the coming season despite the massive change in personnel. The team also has Liam Lawson debuting for his first full season with Milton Keynes in the coming season. Hence, the final edition of the ground-effect era would be highly interesting for the energy drink manufacturing giant in Formula 1.
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Aditya Pandya
(1439 Articles Published)