Red Bull Racing were beaten hands out last time out in the Heineken sponsored Dutch Grand Prix. Despite taking the lead at the start, Max Verstappen succumbed to pressure from Lando Norris on lap 18 as the McLaren car sailed by don the sart/finish straight.

Norris went on to win the race from Verstappen by 22.9 seconds, a Margin that set tongues wagging in the F1 paddock. The winning margin was bigger than by any other driver than Max since Lewis Hamilton back in the infamous 2021 season.

Verstappen is now five Grand Prix weekends without a win, also his longest winning streak less streak since 2020. Red Bull reverted to an early 2024 season specification floor in Zandvoort which appeared something of a panic move given the development work the teams have done since the Chinese Grand Prix.

 

 

 

Martin Brundle commented on Sky F1 after the race that he felt Verstappen may have been sandbagging. When asked about the gold of time difference between Max and Lando, the ex-F1 veteran said: “I would hazard a guess that was not as fast as Max could go. He knew he couldn’t beat Lando and dropping back a bit like that, it’s going to give the factory a hurry up, isn’t it? I’d be pretty sure of that.”

Now Dr. Helmut Marko has come out criticising Bundles opinion and revealing there were other reasons for the near 23 second gap at the chequered flag. “The weather and various accidents reduced the training time, but that wasn’t the reason why things didn’t go as planned in the race,” the 81 year old Austrian says.

“We may have made the mistake of Max driving with too much downforce. Sergio started with less wing and was faster in the second stint.”

Max cruised home in second place at his home Grand Prix over three seconds ahead of Charles Leclerc who was defending from Oscar Piastri over the closing laps of the race.

Lando Norris tells journalist “Don’t ask me that again!”

 

 

 

“Martin Brundle’s assumption that Max was deliberately driving slowly is incorrect, you can’t say that,” Marko concluded.

The Red Bull advisor did admit when Verstappen saw Norris capable of stretching his lead he “stopped taking risks” and the difference between the world champion and team mate Perez was down to a different set up.

“We thought that with more downforce he would slide less. But that made him even more vulnerable at top speed, and tyre wear was still high,” added Marko.

Ahead of this weekends Grand Prix in Monza, Max Verstappen addressed assembled media ahead of the cars hitting the track in anger tomorrow. “We really need to focus on ourselves and work on the balance of the car. It’s something we’ll work on this weekend, as it’s not something that’s easily fixed. We’ve got a couple of theories so we’ll work with that. Some things we’ll be able to address this year, some things we won’t be able to do; we need to keep that in mind,” revealed Max.

Ex-Red Bull Chief Designer now brings McLaren success

 

 

 

The modern era of ground effect F1 cars are more complex than their predecessors and each team decides on a platform for their season’s design but once this is baked in its difficult for the teams to change the entire suspension layout until the next car design.

What exactly Red Bull can’t address with the current RB20 Max did not make clear, but Mercedes suffered from a similar fate last year with their maximum ride height fixed which clearly irritated Lewis Hamilton.

The modern era of F1 ha also exaggerated the performance of certain teams at different kind of track layouts. Red Bull have claimed Zandvoort was an ‘outlier’ this year, though Verstappen claimed the pole position and race win at the last three occasions F1 was in town.

“There a variety of circuits coming up, so hopefully we’ll be able to do better. I don’t expect us to struggle as much as in Zandvoort. Last week just wasn’t a good weekend and we didn’t have the pace. Nevertheless, we finished second, so it’s not all bad. But we do want more. We want to win races, or at the very least be able to compete,” said the triple world champion.

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The wild and changeable North Sea weather last time affected two of the three practice sessions in Zandvoort, which was evidenced by the fact the drivers completed only around half of the normal number of laps before qualifying.

“We wanted to try some stuff but because of the wind and rain we didn’t do as many laps, so we really didn’t get a clearer picture. That’s why I used the old floor to see how that would work over a race distance. That gave us a lot of answers. In Monza we’ll have the new floor again,” Max wrote on Verstappen.com.

The ‘Cathedral of Speed’ in Northern Italy has always been a challenge for F1 teams and drivers alike and this weekend given the surface has been recovered, the tyre data held by the teams from previous visits is now null and void.

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Verstappen won seven of the first five Grand Prix this season, but has been winless now for the past five weekends. When asked about this, Max was candid:“Of course I would like to win more, but I’m still enjoying it. It’s not realistic to have another dominant year like in 2023. Having said that, I didn’t expect to have a year like this with the way we started and where we are now.”

The Red Bull juggernaut has truly been stopped dead in its tracks though with a 70 point lead to second placed driver Lando Norris, the drivers’ title for now looks to be firmly within Max’s grasp. 

Max was relaxed on the matter stating: “Ultimately, I just do my best. If I win the title or not, it’s not going to change my life. Of course I want to win. We’ll try to improve the car, but I don’t know if it’s enough at the end of the year. However, I’m certain we are doing everything we can to improve.”

Red Bull ‘civil war’ reignites

 

 

 

Evidence for Renault quitting F1

In Formula One land nothing should be surprising. Lewis Hamilton announcing he was leaving Mercedes, where he’s claimed six of his seven titles, was indeed a shock for some and then came the news Adrian Newey was leaving Red Bull Racing.

A driver of Carlos Sainz class driving for Williams next season has raised the odd eyebrow or two as has the team’s decision to give their academy driver nine races before the Spaniard joins full time in January.

When it comes to Renault, F1 history shows anything is possible. The French automotive brand first entered the sport in 1977 as a full works team then began selling customer engines in 1983. Renault withdrew their team for 1986 but continued supplying customer engines before pulling out all of F1 all together the following year… READ MORE