Verstappen’s journey to securing his fourth title largely hinged on the strong points lead he managed to build early in the season, complemented by his consistently stellar performances throughout the year.
As the season kicked off, his car exhibited significant dominance in the initial five races, reminiscent of the previous two years. However, from the sixth race in Miami onwards, their advantage began to wane. By the end of the year, their car averaged as the fastest in qualifying, edging out McLaren by just 0.052 seconds. Yet, when considering stats from Miami onwards, McLaren actually outpaced them by 0.053 seconds on average. In the latter half of the season, McLaren clocked in faster times by 0.142 seconds, while even Ferrari managed to be 0.008 seconds quicker than Red Bull.
If McLaren had kicked off the season on a stronger foot, Verstappen’s championship journey could have been significantly more challenging.
Red Bull faced a fundamental imbalance as they attempted to boost their car’s performance. They wrestled with solving slow-speed, mid-corner understeer without unintentionally inducing oversteer in high-speed stretches.
Adrian Newey reflected, “Towards the tail end of ’23, the car’s handling started to become tricky. Max adapted well, but Checo (Sergio Perez) struggled.”
He continued, “The start of ’24 saw the car still maintaining its pace despite these challenges, but I was beginning to worry. Interestingly, not many within the team shared my concerns.”
Observing from an external perspective, Newey suspects a potential oversight: “The Red Bull team, and this isn’t a critique, might have continued down the same development path due to inexperience. The problem gradually escalated to a point where even Max found handling tough.”
Red Bull believes they ceded ground due to their underutilization of aero-elasticity concerning the front wings, unlike McLaren, Mercedes, and later Ferrari. This design technique allows for the carbon-fiber elements of a front wing to flex downward at high speeds, reducing oversteer by trimming downforce, and then revert to optimal downforce mode at slower speeds.
This season introduces new rules curbing wing flexibility—initially at the rear from the season’s outset, and then at the front starting the Spanish Grand Prix in June.
The pressing question now is whether this was Red Bull’s sole stumbling block and if they can regain the momentum lost to McLaren and Ferrari last year, along with addressing whatever advancements these competitors have made over the winter.
