Red Bull’s Las Vegas Fiasco: Team Packs the ‘Wrong Rear Wing,’ Loses Vital Speed

Red Bull have struggled with their car’s performance for most of the 2024 season. While the Sao Paulo GP got them back to winning ways, they find themselves on the back foot once again at the Las Vegas GP. However, this time the issue is a logistical mistake — they have brought the wrong specification rear wing for the Grand Prix.

As per reports, Red Bull drivers lost around six-tenths of a second down the straight during Thursday night’s practice sessions. AMuS also confirmed it, reporting that Red Bull’s rear wing for the race weekend is too “steep”.

So, as a countermeasure, they have to fly in a “flatter”, low downforce-spec rear wing from its Milton Keynes headquarters in England by Friday morning. However, Helmut Marko has commented that it may not be possible for them to do so.

This is not an ideal situation for Red Bull. And both Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez were trying in vain to make the best out of the situation during FP1 and FP2.

According to #AMuS, Red Bull is losing 6 tenths on the straights due to their rear wing.

The team has packed the wrong rear wing for Vegas. It’s too steep, so they would have to fly in a flatter version from England by tomorrow morning to correct it. pic.twitter.com/05wvirhpJ8

— RBR Daily (@RBR_Daily) November 22, 2024

Verstappen was fifth in FP1 but over a second off the fastest lap time set by Lewis Hamilton. Meanwhile, Perez was half a second further adrift of his teammate in 10th.

Their situation worsened in FP2. That was perhaps due to the other teams turning the wick up on their performance, or because of a limited number of runs forced by multiple incidents on track. Verstappen was over two seconds off the pacesetter Hamilton. He was down to P17. Meanwhile, Perez finished 19th in the FP2 classification, 2.23 seconds off P1.

Red Bull have put themselves in a precarious situation ahead of Verstappen’s quest to secure his fourth world championship in Las Vegas.