Red Bull’s goal for the nineteenth round of the 2024 F1 season is clear: to return to winning. This is a scenario the team hasn’t seen since May, when Max Verstappen won the race in Barcelona. We know that the Austrian team has worked hard to update the RB20. These updates, at least on paper, should correct some settings that have made it really difficult to find the ideal setup for the car. The constructors’ championship isn’t lost yet. McLaren remains the favorite and currently leads the standings.
However, Red Bull hasn’t given up on the idea of reaffirming itself as the F1 world champion team, and from Austin onwards, it intends to make a significant technical leap to bolster the hopes of both its drivers and engineers. Helmut Marko was quite clear about this in a statement that served as a warning to McLaren: “The next updates on the RB20 will bring a lot of competitiveness to the RB20.” We’ll see if that’s the case, as this isn’t the first time the team has produced ineffective updates this season.
Of course, the drivers’ championship still needs to be “protected.” The world champion can count on a good “cushion” of points over his closest rival, Lando Norris. Despite having a super-fast car, the MCL38, since last spring, Lando has not been able to chip away at the multi-title-winning Dutchman’s lead. It’s a real shame. However, he intends to do so. To succeed, he cannot make any more mistakes, always aiming for victory. Ferrari could also play the role of a spoiler in this fight, potentially influencing the results in the last six races, including the three Sprint Races.
Red Bull’s RB20 arrives in Austin with a technical package that, although full of potential, has shown some difficulties in adapting to certain conditions during the current season. One of the RB20’s strengths is its excellent balance in the second half of corners, referring to the exit phase, where the car needs to transfer power to the ground and accelerate. This makes the Austrian cars particularly competitive in situations where traction is crucial, such as the slow and medium corners in the third sector of the Circuit of the Americas.
F1, Red Bull: the strengths of the RB20 that often remain untapped
The RB20’s ability to be effective when the driver hits the throttle offers a clear benefit in sections where corner exit speed significantly affects lap times. Another key aspect of the blue-liveried car is its aerodynamic efficiency, one of the pillars of Milton Keynes’ success in recent years. Although the car excels at reducing drag while maintaining high downforce, this advantage hasn’t always translated into a tangible competitive edge.
A clear example comes from the Italian Grand Prix, where the RB20 showed excellent top speeds at times but failed to find a setup that allowed it to dominate in high-speed sections. The result was a loss of ground to its direct competitors. This highlights that while aerodynamic efficiency is a cornerstone for Red Bull, the difficulty in finding the ideal car setup has often limited the car’s overall effectiveness.
The downforce generated by the car’s underbody is always excellent. Red Bull can produce high vertical downforce, which is crucial for ensuring stability in corners and mechanical grip. However, even in this area, the team has not always been able to fully exploit its potential for vertical thrust, especially on tracks with uneven surfaces like Austin. The first sector in Austin consists of very fast corners, where the RB20 should generally feel comfortable.
Despite the efforts of the Grand Prix organizers, considering the track’s characteristics, the unevenness of the circuit could pose a significant challenge. Red Bull has shown difficulty managing bumpier tracks, often struggling to soften its cars’ suspension adequately. This limitation in handling bumps has the potential to cause stability issues and compromise performance in more technical and demanding sections. There’s also another headache the reigning F1 world champion team is dealing with.
We’re talking about the “disconnect between the front and rear axles of the car,” a problem the team has been grappling with for several months now. This issue, which involves the inability of the two axles to “follow” each other coherently, creates an imbalance in the RB20’s behavior in corners, making it harder for drivers to manage the car predictably. Although Red Bull has managed to partially mitigate this problem, it hasn’t been completely resolved.
This is why the overall handling of the Austrian car is still not optimal, especially in fast bends and quick direction changes. Additionally, Red Bull has faced several challenges in balancing the car throughout the season. Small setup variations have not always resulted in a consistent and linear response once the cars hit the track, and as the team tries to reach the optimal balance point between the two axles, the car’s behavior becomes more unpredictable, complicating matters.
This has made it extremely difficult to find the right balance to maximize performance in various sections of the track, especially on a varied circuit like Austin, which requires precision in every sector. Red Bull may reduce the rear downforce somewhat to increase efficiency, a move that could weaken the rear end. As a result, extensive work was done in the simulator to stabilize the rear in corner entry, even with a less loaded wing. This “patch” in the suspension setup has caused trouble for the front end, and the team hopes they won’t need to rely on it with the upcoming upgrades.
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