Red Bull will experiment with the specification of its Formula 1 car at the Dutch Grand Prix in an attempt to fix the issues that have left Max Verstappen unhappy and contributed to Sergio Perez’s considerable difficulties.
After a dominant start to 2024, Red Bull and Verstappen are on their longest winless streak (four races) since 2020, while McLaren and Mercedes have emerged as consistent threats.
Verstappen has raised concerns about Red Bull’s development as its winning streak continued despite a major aerodynamic upgrade at the Hungarian Grand Prix. In theory, this special high-downforce package should be used on both cars at Zandvoort this weekend – after being used in a fast-track and only on Verstappen’s car at the Hungaroring.
While this bodywork should be seen on at least one RB20 on Friday, the practice is intended for trying out different setup elements and car parts.
World champion Verstappen did not comment specifically on this at his home race on Thursday, but spoke of the need to “understand the car a bit better” after trying to “analyse a lot and try to do things maybe a bit differently or better” during the break.
“We want to get out of the situation we have been in in the last few races and maybe learn a little more about the car and be more competitive,” he said.
Teammate Perez was more explicit, admitting that “there were one or two upgrades that probably led us down the wrong track” and strongly hinting that there would be different parts on the car on Friday – either for him compared to Verstappen, or for both cars compared to pre-summer specification.
Although Perez will use some of the high-downforce body panels that made their debut on Verstappen’s car in Hungary, expect there to be some mixing and matching of parts around it.
“It’s now clear where we stand with the car. That’s something I want to keep in the team, the attention to detail,” said Perez.
“You will see what we will do with the cars. That will stay with the team, but we have gone in a direction that is not right.”
It could be that Red Bull will just test a few parts in a row during practice on Friday and then switch to the same specification for both cars for the rest of the weekend, with a mix of Hungarian and pre-Hungarian components on the body and underbody.
Whatever the outcome, this is only a short-term measure to address the weaknesses identified. Upgrades to fix the problem will hopefully only be required in a few races.
And it is possible that Perez will drive a different specification than Verstappen, as he has had his own problems over the last three months.
When asked specifically whether he would return to an old specification, Perez replied: “We’ll see. We’ll definitely try a lot of different things.”
“We have certainly gone in the wrong direction, but this is obviously not something that can be easily remedied. And certainly not quickly.”
“It’s not that easy, given the possible lack of training and the different types of tracks that we’re facing.”
On Thursday in Zandvoort, Perez spoke to the media for the first time since Red Bull decided to keep him in the car for the rest of the season – a prospect he said was pure speculation.
“The meeting had nothing to do with the drivers, it was just about performance,” Perez claimed.
But it was key to keeping his seat, at least for now. Perez is right that performance counts too, and some crucial changes are being made to achieve that.
In addition to the car experiments, Perez has a newly assembled engineering team here as regular race engineer Hugh Bird prepares for paternity leave.
This looming absence has created a good opportunity to give Perez a new voice, which The Race says could be a permanent move. Perez says: “That’s not the plan at the moment, but of course we’ll see how it all goes.”
“It’s becoming clearer and clearer to all of us where we stand and what we need to work on,” Perez said of his engineering team, which is supporting Bird before he begins his vacation.
“It was very positive, I would say.”
