The weekend in Jeddah was extremely positive for Red Bull, a team currently experiencing ups and downs at the start of this season. The limits of the RB21 are starting to show, but Max Verstappen’s talent, combined with the engineers’ huge efforts, is keeping the car consistently among the front-runners.
Jeddah was a track particularly well-suited to the car’s characteristics: the smooth, bump-free asphalt allowed the RB21 to run a lower and stiffer setup, while good aerodynamic efficiency combined with excellent stability in fast corners did the rest. However, the start of the weekend was not easy at all. Helmut Marko confirmed that the team completely overhauled the car’s setup, just as they had done in Suzuka, where they later won.
“Let’s focus on the positives: especially after the difficult weekend in Bahrain, there was a great sense of relief within the team for how things went in Jeddah,” said Marko.
“This competitiveness was a surprise even for us. We didn’t expect to have the upper hand over McLaren, especially after the difficulties on Friday.
The clear improvement compared to Bahrain is the result of several factors. We found the right direction with the setup, and it confirmed how complex it is to find the ideal setup with this car. But when we manage to hit the optimal operating window, the car is absolutely competitive. If we miss it, as happened in Bahrain, we end up floating around sixth place.”
The layout of the track helped the Red Bull RB21
As previously mentioned, there are circuits that better suit the technical characteristics of the Red Bull RB21, and Jeddah proved to be one of them, as Marko confirmed.
“The improvement was also linked to the characteristics of the track: Bahrain mainly has medium-speed corners and very rough asphalt,” he explained.
“Jeddah is completely different: very fast, flowing corners and asphalt that barely wears the tires. It was clear that the drivers complained very little about tire degradation during the race. For most of the race, they were able to push at maximum.”
Marko finally admitted that the disappointing weekend in Bahrain led Red Bull to rethink its technical approach during race weekends.
“After the Bahrain GP, we decided Red Bull needed to rethink its working methods during practice,” he said – “We already started doing so in Jeddah, for example by making qualifying simulations more realistic, so as to get more accurate indications of our competitiveness. Our goal now is to widen the car’s operating window and correct some weaknesses ahead of the European races, to improve the car’s base speed.”
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