Red Bull Racing expected more from the RB20

Red Bull debuted a radically evolved F1 car at the start of the 2024 F1 season, and the early races gave the impression that Max Verstappen will be trotting a fourth consecutive Title, but from Miami onwards things have changed.

McLaren showed up to the party with a massive upgrade to their MCL38 and Lando Norris won the Miami GP, and while Verstappen won at Imola, he struggled in Monaco. The Dutchman won in Canada and Spain, but since then has failed to visit the top step of the podium.

Even when the triple F1 Champion was winning, he has had to work hard for it, while races such as Hungary saw him struggling and even voicing his frustration which has brought him under much criticism.

While the RB20 is not a slow car by any measure, it has failed to deliver the impact its all-conquering predecessor the RB19 has. The RB19 won all but one of the 2023 F1 races.

Red Bull tech boss Pierre Wache was asked by Motorsport.com whether the RB20 was as good as they expected, he said: "I would say not really. We improved compared to last year, without doubt, but we didn’t deliver what we expected in some areas.

"Especially in the high-speed corners we expected a little bit more than what we have. Without thinking about the competitiveness of the car, so just based on our own references, we expected a little bit more with our tools.

"In medium-speed and low-speed we improved quite a lot compared to last year. We were a little bit weaker in the high-speed corners compared to last year relative to the competition.

"In kerb riding we are clearly weak, but we were already last year. I think we didn’t make the improvement we expected in that aspect," Wache lamented.

"I think some aspects can be linked to the correlation," the Red Bull engineer responded when asked why the RB20 did not perform as expected.

"We are using quite an old wind tunnel and it can also be linked to the reduced capacity due to our position in the championship [with the ATR testing restrictions] and maybe also the fact that this is the third year with this type of regulations," he explained.

Verstappen has won seven races so far in 2024, that is before McLaren and then Mercedes caught up with Red Bull, and Wache admitted the Milton Keynes squad expected their rivals to start challenging them quite earlier.

Before that, Red Bull dominated the 2023 F1 season, and saw off a brief challenge from Ferrari in the first year of the current regulations in 2022.

"We expected the opposition to come earlier, to be honest with you," Wache pointed out. "When we started the 2022 season, we didn’t have the quickest car. Ferrari had the quickest car in the beginning of 2022. We expected a massive competition in 2023, but that didn’t happen.

"In 2024 we also expected the competition to be there more or less from the start, because the performance you can find with the car is limited under the same regulations.

"After the first four or five races the others came back, maybe with a bit of delay, but we expected that from the start.

"The limitations you have with these regulations are quite high and what you can find to make more steps is getting more difficult. Then it is almost sure that the opposition will come back at some point," Wache concluded.

Red Bull have not been in the best of places this year which started with Christian Horner's sexting scandal, followed by a mini-civil war within the team with Jos Verstappen and Dr. Helmut Marko taking part not to mention the big wigs from Red Bull HQ in Austria.

Design Guru Adrian Newey is on his way out and not involved in car development anymore, while long-serving Sporting Director Jonathan Wheatley's departure was recently confirmed his next destination being Audi's F1 Project where he will be Team Principal.

Also worth mentioning the reports and rumors linking Verstappen with a move to Mercedes refuse to fade out.