Red Bull Racing has been putting a lot of effort into getting back on track after only managing two podium finishes in the previous six races.
Concern over McLaren and Ferrari surpassing Red Bull in race pace is mounting, putting Max Verstappen’s and the team’s aspirations of winning the championship in jeopardy. At the Italian Grand Prix, where Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc finished an astounding 38 seconds ahead of Verstappen, the team’s performance shortfall was very noticeable.
Many, including Verstappen himself, expressed doubts about Red Bull’s car due to this large disparity, stating openly that the team would have to “change the whole car” to reclaim its competitive advantage. The team’s struggles have prompted urgent changes as they seek to salvage the remainder of the season.
In a bid to address the issues, Red Bull has introduced a modified floor geometry ahead of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix in Baku. According to the pre-race technical document, the changes are intended to “improve the pressure gradients along the floor to improve the flow locally and downstream in all conditions.” This adjustment aims to refine the car’s aerodynamic performance, which has been a critical factor in the team’s recent struggles.
Speaking ahead of FP1 on Friday, Chief Engineer Paul Monaghan discussed the minor physical changes to the car and expressed hope that they would be included in Red Bull’s inquiry into its present balancing problems, saying: “The lessons are kind of ongoing and the immediate reaction tends to be the later races so it’s a testament to everybody that we got it here.
“It’s a lot of hard work and that hard work will continue. Singapore’s only a week away so it’ll be potentially another evolution for us.”
However, Monaghan was careful to manage expectations regarding the impact of the update. While the changes are subtle, he expressed optimism that they could yield positive results: “The scale of the update kind of determines the phase lag in there, so if we’ve managed to do it for this race, it’s not the biggest one we’ll ever undertake in terms of geometry change.
“It’s subtle, could the effect be good? Yes. And I think the proof of the pudding will be on Sunday afternoon.
“We’ve tried to bring changes to the car and make it better and we don’t want to watch Monza again. It wasn’t the most pleasant event for us, so we’d like to improve, relative to our opposition.
“As I keep saying, Sunday afternoon, let’s see how we go. And then we’ll know a bit more about what we’re doing. This time around, all of our research says this is the right thing to do. Ultimately, our test is later today [in practice].”
Despite the introduction of the new floor, Monaghan stopped short of confirming whether both drivers would have access to the upgrade on the Azerbaijani streets. He simply stated that the team “could” decide to use the new floor, leaving the final decision on its deployment open-ended.
