Verstappen Mysteriously Hints 'Something Has Been Going Wrong Lately' With His RB20

Monday, 26 August 2024 at 15:45

Max Verstappen discussed the problem with his RB20, suggesting that something had changed in the car that was not there at the start of the season.

What looked like another dominant season for Red Bull after opening two races in Bahrain and Jeddah quickly turned into a much tougher battle for the Austrian team than perhaps anyone might have anticipated.

Max Verstappen went from finishing 48.458 seconds ahead of Lando Norris in the first race to finishing 22.896 seconds behind the McLaren driver last weekend in the Netherlands.

How did the Dutchman with Red Bull lose their huge advantage and fall this much behind? Verstappen shared his thoughts when speaking to the media after the 204 Dutch Grand Prix.

"It wasn't there in the first few races, but something in the car has made it more difficult to drive."

"It's very hard to pinpoint where that is coming from at the moment. And that is then hurting, of course, our one-lap performance but also our long run."

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The 26-year-old revealed he struggled with the same problems throughout the whole weekend, from the first practice session until the end of the race.

"The whole weekend has been the same limitations. I had pretty much the same balance from FP1 all the way to the race, so it's just very hard to solve at the moment."

Red Bull used to be the most balanced car on the grid, performing the best over longer distances due to supreme tire management. However, that has also recently changed, leaving Verstappen puzzled.

"It just seems like we are too slow, but also quite bad on degradation at the moment. That's a bit weird because I think the last few years, normally, we've been quite good on that."

"So, something has been going wrong lately with the car that we need to understand and we need to quickly try to improve. It's just not a connected balance, front or rear."