F1 News: Christian Horner Reveals Issue With Red Bull Upgrades

Saajan Jogia | Jul 23, 2024

May 4, 2024; Miami Gardens, Florida, USA; Red Bull Racing driver Max Verstappen (1) during F1 qualifying for Miami Grand Prix at Miami International Autodrome. Mandatory Credit: Peter Casey-USA TODAY Sports / Peter Casey-USA TODAY Sports

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner has blamed the upgraded RB20 F1 car's understeer problem for the team's struggles during the Hungarian Grand Prix, causing Max Verstappen to finish fifth.

The car received the biggest upgrade package of the season in Hungary, as a response to McLaren's surge in performance, although it was only applied to Verstappen's car. The team anticipated that the enhanced pace would bring back the days when winning was an easy affair in Formula 1.

However, the upgrade had its side effects. While battling with Lewis Hamilton, Verstappen complained over the radio about the car's handling, stating it didn't turn as expected. The communication also featured the three-time world champion expressing frustration over the car’s performance and Red Bull's flawed race strategy to his race engineer, Gianpiero Lambiase.

Horner clarified that the RB20's understeer problem compromised the car's pace. He told the media:

“It didn’t work out for us [on Sunday]. We seemed to have understeer and then losing that position at the start and conceding back to Lando affected us.

"We tried giving an overlap to give Max the pace but to no avail. The middle sector, in parts of the race was where we were looking competitive but there is plenty for us to look at to try and see how we can improve and come back stronger next weekend."

However, the team boss was happy with the other RB20 being driven by Perez, who managed to finish within the points despite starting P17. The Mexican driver displayed a great run after going through a period of lows in recent weeks that caused him to underperform and crash during qualifying sessions at Silverstone and Hungary. Horner added:

"Checo drove a good race today and his strategy, getting the undercut on George, worked well.

"He also showed good pace, made good overtakes, and hopefully would have taken some good confidence from that for a strong performance in Spa."