Horner: Monza helped identify root cause of RB20 issue

With Red Bull losing their way with the development of the RB20 ever since Adrian Newey announced his departure and that failed upgrade package at Imola, Max Verstappen has been playing catch up with Lando Norris and McLaren, who are now the package to beat in Formula 1.

The race in Monza must actually go down the lowest point in the Dutchman's 2024 season. Verstappen qualified seventh for the Italian GP and raced to sixth at the chequered. He was lucky that Charles Leclerc won that race while Norris was third.

However, Horner took some positives away from that miserable Italian weekend for his team and their star driver. He claimed they were able to pinpoint the problem with their RB20.

That saw the RB20 slightly improve for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix and go even better in the Singapore Grand Prix, as Red Bull are now planning an upgrade for the upcoming race, the US Grand Prix in Austin.

Quoted by Motorsport.com in Singapore, Horner said: "We already could see the issues, but I think what Monza really exposed was perhaps some of the root cause, or helped to identify the root cause of the issue.

"So I'm taking Monza as the low point, and we're starting to build out of that," he added.

As for the race in Singapore, where Verstappen finished second behind Norris, albeit 20 seconds behind, Horner commented: "Obviously the gap to Lando was significant in the first part of the race, and we've now got the best part of a month to work hard and try and bring some performance to the car in Austin.

"When you consider where we were a couple of weeks ago, I think we have made some real progress. We've got a vein of development, and we've understood some of the issues with the car.

"I think we're starting to address them. We were better in Baku, we were better here [Singapore]. So, there'll be a lot of late nights in Milton Keynes.

"The McLaren is the benchmark car at the moment, and we have a bit to catch up, but we've got the people and the capability to do that," Horner concluded.

Verstappen is still leading the F1 drivers' championship from Norris by 52 points, with six grand prix weekends remaining, three of which are Sprints.