After the Azerbaijan GP, Christian Horner revealed that Red Bull had traced the problems with the RB20 back to an underbody upgrade introduced to the 2023 car in Spain. However, Max Verstappen’s ability to mask the issue led to complacency within the team, and they are now paying the price. This ability to hide problems is similar to what Michael Schumacher used to do.
In the book Michael Schumacher: The Edge of Greatness, Ross Brawn explained how Schumacher could drive an imbalanced car and still set lap times close to those achieved with a perfectly balanced car. These impressive lap times often misled the team in their development and setup direction.
Funny how history repeats. That’s 2020, 2023 & likely 2024 where Max Verstappen’s ability & success perhaps tricked Red Bull into thinking it was on the right path of development.
Very similar to some Michael Schumacher stories. Lots of stuff feels very relevant to Red Bull recently. https://t.co/sfkiT6DvHB pic.twitter.com/W5PrOJNjNQ
— Daniel Valente ️ (@F1GuyDan) September 16, 2024
“He might be doing similar lap times, but it doesn’t throw the changes into focus so you can go the wrong way,” he said. “This is also a weakness because it makes the difference between a good car and an average car less discernible in testing and you can easily misread how competitive a car is.”
Brawn further revealed that, despite Schumacher’s complaints about car problems, his top times often led the team to disregard his issues. As a result, Schumacher’s teammates became the true benchmark for assessing the team’s performance, Brawn added.
In Red Bull’s case, Horner revealed that Sergio Perez began to struggle after the Barcelona upgrade, while Verstappen continued to excel. The team didn’t take Perez’s issues seriously. As a result, the entire team is now suffering, having lost the lead in the Constructors’ championship to McLaren.
Perez was under significant pressure as Verstappen widened the performance gap. Technical Director Pierre Wache noted that Red Bull faced a similar issue back in 2020.
Verstappen’s “Talent” Sent Red Bull in the “Wrong Direction”
Wache revealed in 2022 that Verstappen’s driving style and talent had affected Red Bull two years earlier. He explained that while the Dutchman’s unique driving style allows him to extract more from the car, it also makes the car unstable.
“…you don’t realize you went in the wrong direction because you are still extracting more lap time from the car,” Wache said to RN365. “But you don’t realize at first it’s only because he has so much talent.”
Wache further explained how an unstable car made Verstappen faster, but limited its true potential. As a result, the team had to overhaul the aero surfaces. Verstappen’s “talent blinded us a little to what was happening.”
