"Other teams have taken bigger steps" - Max Verstappen offers 'realistic' opinion about Red Bull F1's rate of development this season

Max Verstappen believes that other teams making bigger steps have made Red Bull’s development curve look a bit underwhelming. Speaking to the media including Sportskeeda ahead of the 2024 Hungarian GP, the triple world champion was realistic about the wind tunnel time limitations and the performance targets for the RB20.

Red Bull Racing have one limitation to their rivals which has been the limited wind tunnel time for CFD testing as a winning team. According to the rule, the time allotted to a team is in an ascending order starting with the leading team getting the least amount of time. With rivals such as McLaren and Mercedes entitled to more wind tunnel time, they have been able to bring updates to their car more profusely. The rule has allowed the grid to converge and rivals to catch up resulting in the Milton Keynes squad and Max Verstappen managing to win only two out of the last five races.

Most of the time Verstappen has had to drive the car on the limit and push the envelope using his natural raw pace. He explained that the wind tunnel time did put his team on the back foot but finding performance with modern F1 cars has been complicating. Assessing his team’s rate of development, he felt being the leading team and rivals catching up does not help their cause. He felt that the messy weekends has not helped and the completion closing added to their performance woes.

Asked by Sportskeeda if he was satisfied with Red Bull’s rate of development in 2024 compared to previous seasons in terms of finding performance gains, Verstappen said:

“If you look at it realistically, other teams have made bigger steps, thats very clear. But I know that my team is pushing as hard as they can. You know to find performance is very complicating in these cars, some bits might be also in the setup itself. But yeah we need to find more performance. Of course as the leading team we have less time in the wind tunnel and stuff. I am not using that as an excuse, because I don’t want to think like that. But the reality is that we have lost time you know and we try to do the best that we can.”

Asked where the development curve has stalled in the last few races, Verstappen replied:

“I think its two things, because in the beginning of the year, I really felt good with the car. Even more natural than the year before for me to drive the car, which was positive thing. But then I would say after a few races, probably with the competition also closing up, we just had weekends that were messy and a bit difficult to find the sweet spot whereas in the first few races we didn’t have any issues. It just seemed to click more naturally.”

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Max Verstappen hopes for the RB20 upgrades to make Red Bull’s race weekends smoother

Max Verstappen believes smaller gains in the past paid off huge dividends with a dominant car. However, with the competition closing up, he felt its up to Red Bull to find more performance and take a leap forward in terms of car development. The reigning world champion reckoned that setup risks were not an issue but having to drive the car on the limit every weekend made their job more difficult. Hoping for the upgrades to work, the 26-year-old felt that he preferred to go back to the natural feeling he had with the car at the beginning of the season.

Asked if it is difficult to bring upgrades profusely to find performance gains, Verstappen said:

“Not necessarily. Other teams have shown that you can make big jumps. Naturally because when you are the leading team and you are doing very well. Because in the past, I think it was quite normal to make smaller steps. Now it’s upto us again to try and find more performance and that is what we are trying to do.”

Asked if the grid converging made Red Bull take more risks with setups to find performance, Verstappen said:

“I don’t think that’s how we have been operating and suddenly then Oh we have to wake up with the setup. We’ve always been trying to optimise things. Yeah at one point if your car is not the dominant force anymore, you have to try and I wouldn’t say overdrive it, but you have to be more on the limit. And then of course it's easier to then have moments and then its all a bit more peaky, a bit more you know easier to have difficulties I would say. Now it's up to us to try and make it a bit easier for ourselves, to bring more upgrades and hopefully the car performs a bit better.”

Max Verstappen currently leads the Drivers' championship by 84 points and Red Bull lead the Constructors' championship by 71 points. Given that the Constructors' championship lead is not the most comfortable one, there is a serious threat posed by both Ferrari and McLaren. The Hungarian GP weekend is going to be an important one for both the Dutchman and his team. Heading into the race weekend at one of their weaker circuits, Red Bull has brought a new engine cover, front and rear corners and a front wing.