Red Bull took yet another victory at the 2024 Chinese GP to make it four out of five wins this season. However, despite their on-track dominance in terms of wins and podiums, the Milton-Keynes-based outfit have been suffering from massive tire degradation problems, an area of concern from last year that both Ferrari and McLaren have addressed well.
Kevin Hermann tabulated the average tire degradation in seconds per lap on X (formerly Twitter). After his analysis, he placed Red Bull as the third worst team in terms of their tire degradation with only Sauber and Aston Martin worse off.
The downside of a larger degree of tire degradation are two-fold. Firstly, it affects the outright level of grip – which the RB20 can mitigate with its superior aerodynamic and chassis design. However, the other side of this problem is how more tire degradation always means more pitstops.
Teams like McLaren and Ferrari have fixed these tire issues that were plaguing them last year. As a result, these rivals are able to do longer stints on their tire compounds than Red Bull. Ultimately, this could be a huge handicap in terms of race strategy for Red Bull down the line.
However, in terms of pure numbers, it’s not the end of the world for Red Bull. The team will be bringing in upgrades over the course of the season that are expected to tackle the issue of greater tire degradation.
McLaren look to extend their advantage over Red Bull with crucial Miami GP upgrades
The 2024 season is going to be a massive developmental war. Since last year, teams like Ferrari, McLaren and Aston Martin have found significant performance compared to Red Bull. Hence, this year they would be hoping to extend their advantage and eventually overtake the 2023 Constructors’ champions by the end of the season.
When it comes to McLaren, they have a targeted upgrade package coming up at the Miami GP as per Motorsport.com. Andrea Stella, the team’s principal, explained that these upgrades are sculpted to not only increase performance but also address tire wear.
He was quoted as saying, “These upgrades will also include some attempts to improve tire degradation, so we will try and see if we can take a step forward.” Naturally, with an existent tire advantage over Red Bull, McLaren are looking to extend their performance window in the hopes of neutralizing Max Verstappen’s prowess.
As things stand, the battle for P2 in the Constructors’ Championship is heating up. McLaren and Ferrari will take it down to the wire, but as the season progresses, even Aston Martin could find themselves in the mix.
