After McLaren took a convincing victory in Singapore with Lando Norris, Red Bull were thankful about the three-week gap until this weekend’s US GP. It has given Red Bull time to analyse the data and prepare their next upgrades – which Helmut Marko says the team are confident in.
Red Bull hope to reverse negative development trend with large COTA upgrade package
The Hungarian GP was the last time Red Bull brought a sizable set of updates to the RB20. These updates were unsuccessful, leaving the factory in Milton Keynes with a dilemma.
Like most teams in the past twelve months, Red Bull found themselves caught out by inaccurate correlation between the wind tunnel and the track.
Until now, McLaren have almost entirely avoided this issue – allowing them to overtake the defending Champions in the development race.
As a result, this weekend is critical to the team’s title hopes. Max Verstappen has successfully maintained his advantage over Lando Norris since the Imola GP – which is when McLaren’s resurgence began.
However, the Dutchman will need more firepower before the season ends – otherwise the initiative remains in McLaren’s hands.
COTA the first litmus test for RB20 upgrades
Speaking ahead of F1’s return this weekend, Helmut Marko said Red Bull are optimistic about their next updates:
“We are clearly on an upward trend,” he told OE24.
“However, I have to admit, we have recently had the same problems as Ferrari and Mercedes. Sometimes it [the upgrade package] works, then it doesn’t – although we don’t know why that is.
“McLaren is consistently fast. But they probably waited too long to make a clear commitment to Norris.
“So he is still far behind Max, who we hope will now be able to give a car that he has more confidence in. Our technicians have new parts, and are optimistic.”
A new floor specification is expected to feature as part of Red Bull’s upgrade package this weekend. The Milton Keynes squad are hopeful the American GP can mark the beginning of a resurgence in their mid-season development.
Owing to this weekend’s Sprint race format, optimising the latest version of the RB20 will not be easy. Other front-runners, including Mercedes, will face a similar problem.
Regardless, limited running time increases the pressure on Red Bull’s technical team to establish a strong baseline set-up from the beginning of Free Practice.
Of course, set-up can only go so far in impacting performance. Ultimately, Christian Horner’s personnel must prove their work over the past month has generated a step forward in performance.
Having established a more reliable aerodynamic balance in Singapore, Red Bull are hopeful they can build upon their new foundation until the season finale in Abu Dhabi.
