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Max Verstappen Reveals “Fundamental Problem” That Red Bull Cannot Fix Before 2025

Anirban Aly Mandal
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Max Verstappen Reveals “Fundamental Problem” That Red Bull Cannot Fix Before 2025

After suffering for pace at the 2024 Monaco GP, Max Verstappen has revealed that the team have a fundamental problem with the RB20. The three-time world champion also believes that the latest that the team can fix these issues is no sooner than the 2025 season.

Motorsport.com quoted the 26-year-old as explaining, “It is a fundamental problem, so it is not something that will be fixed within weeks. But we will work hard to find the problem and then try to get rid of it. I don’t know if we can do it this year but hopefully for next year.”

The RB20 suffers from instability on bumpy tracks. Further, the car is also prone to losing mechanical grip, inexplicably, when riding the kerbs or bumps. This problem was exposed at the Monaco GP as Max Verstappen could only muster a sixth-placed finish in both the Qualifying and the main Grand Prix.

The concept of the RB20 has largely been carried over from the RB19 – which was also an evolution of the RB18. Hence, the team have been suffering from these low-speed and kerbing issues for the past three years. Last year, it cost the team victory at the Singapore GP as well.

But in previous years, their rivals were nowhere near them in terms of performance. Hence, despite these shortcomings, the RB18 and RB19 were able to compensate in other areas and still end up being the benchmark for the rest of the field. This time around, however, the likes of Ferrari and McLaren are close enough to expose Red Bulls’ vulnerability.

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Red Bull‘s issues started to surface from the 2024 Miami GP onwards. Lando Norris went on the clinch his first F1 Grand Prix win in the revised MCL38, and Max Verstappen finished seven seconds off the lead.

At the 2024 Emilia Romagna GP, the story was no different. Verstappen struggled throughout the practice sessions with understeer and loss of grip. However, the team turned it around with a few setup changes before Qualifying. Even though Verstappen won the race, it was by the slimmest of margins (0.7 seconds ahead of Norris).

But Red Bulls’ luck finally ran out on the streets of the Principality. The contours of the Monaco Grand Prix are narrow, twisty, and bumpy. This saw the Dutchman lose the most amount of time to his rivals in the second and third sectors. However, Red Bull were not able to mitigate the issues this time around.

From how things have panned out so far, street circuits are likely to be a problematic area for Red Bull to conquer with the RB20’s characteristics. Hence, with the Canadian GP up next, Verstappen has predicted another long weekend for himself and the team.

Post Edited By:Vidit Dhawan

About the author

Anirban Aly Mandal

Anirban Aly Mandal

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Anirban Aly Mandal is an F1 writer at The SportsRush, with over 1000 articles under his belt, Anirban's love for F1 started when he discovered a copy of F1 2014 on his computer. With over half a decade's worth of time spent religiously following the sport, he’s dived deep into the world of motorsports. However, Anirban's expertise goes beyond just writing - he has also written several academic papers focused on the domain of motorsports and the law. His passion for the sport is so immense that he aspires to work as a legal advisor in the most prestigious racing series in the world someday. When it comes to Formula 1, Anirban finds great pleasure in re-watching classic races and idolizes the likes of Ayrton Senna, Nigel Mansell, and Sebastian Vettel. His top picks include Brazil '91, Silverstone '92, and Germany '19. Outside of the sport, Anirban is an avid sim racer, often found racing on titles like Assetto Corsa, F1 22, and Automobilista. Apart from his interests in gaming, Anirban has a keen interest in philosophy, literature and music.

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