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Max Verstappen has revealed that the biggest breakthrough for Red Bull came after the race in Monza, where he was able to find certain irregularities in the data, prompting a clear change in direction for the squad. The 2024 F1 season was strange in a lot of ways as the Dutch driver went from dominating the grid to finding himself behind Ferrari, McLaren, and even Mercedes, who were faster on some tracks.
Such a drastic change in fortunes is not normal, and it was identified that the RB20 had a few character flaws that made the car struggle when it comes to balance and even cause major issues when it comes to overall performance. The nadir of this was the race in Monza, where the car was labeled a "monster" by Max Verstappen and would be at best the 4th fastest on the grid.
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That race, however, was also the point where Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko claimed that the team had found something, and an upgrade in Austin could be the start of getting back on track.
In a chat with the Telegraph, Max Verstappen detailed what happened as he talked about how he was looking through some charts with the engineers for a comparison between 2024 and 2023. The driver said he pointed out a significant anomaly in the data, which proved to be the breakthrough moment, as now the team knew what direction it had to pursue. Verstappen detailed,
"All plans for new parts that were to come after that could go in the bin. The team basically started all over again after that. They couldn't find the exact problem before that. I saw some graphs at one point when we were looking at the data. I saw certain aerodynamic shifts in how we entered the corners, turned in and also in terms of ride heights. Different from the car from the year before. I said: 'Hey, it's very clear that this and this is the problem, isn't it?' And that was right, I heard. I had not seen those lines, those graphs, before."
Max Verstappen added,
"I said then that it was clear what we had to work on, because of course the engineers know exactly what had been changed compared to the car from last year. And at the beginning of last season we were still winning our races convincingly, but I already felt that the balance of the car didn't feel the way I wanted it to. But then we still had a big lead over other teams, who maybe hadn't had a very good winter.”
Max Verstappen's revival after Red Bull upgrade in Austin
The learnings from Monza were crucial for Red Bull to change course and bring upgrades to the car in the right direction. This is pivotal to what happened to the team's fortunes once the Austin upgrade was introduced. The car's balance got much better from that point onwards, and even though the car retained some flaws, it had a much better foundation.
As a result, Max Verstappen ended up winning the race in Brazil in the wet weather. He followed that up with another race win in Qatar.
That the car still has a few steps to make before it is easy to drive and is balanced enough for the drivers to push was evident in races like Las Vegas, Mexico, and Abu Dhabi, where the car was still a step behind Ferrari and McLaren.
