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Verstappen Red Bull Can Still Improve RB20

Verstappen ‘refuses to believe’ that Red Bull has reached the potential limit of the RB20

12/07/2024

Max Verstappen remains steadfast in his belief that Red Bull can further enhance the RB20, despite current development regulations hindering potential gains. He rejects complacency and trusts in his team’s relentless pursuit of performance.

Max Verstappen remains confident in Red Bull’s ability to improve the performance of their RB20, even as team principal Christian Horner admits they are finding diminishing returns.

Horner stated that the team is experiencing “diminishing returns” from their development program in the third year under the current technical regulations.

However, Verstappen, who used the team’s sole new floor introduced last weekend, rejects the idea that his team cannot continue to improve their car like others do.

“I refuse to believe it because it makes you lazy!”

“I am convinced that everyone at the factory is still doing everything possible to bring performance elements to the car. But it’s clear that there are many smart people in other teams doing the same thing.”

Red Bull has been the team to beat in most of the early races, but McLaren and Mercedes F1 are now regularly overtaking them, including in race pace.

Since the beginning of last year, while Red Bull has consistently led the constructors’ championship, their rivals have benefited from more aerodynamic development time under F1’s performance balancing rules.

“Naturally, it would always help to have more time,” Verstappen admits to explain the difficulty in finding gains.

“But that’s how the rules work to try to slow down the winning team.”

“Honestly, when you’re the ones chasing, you’re happy it works this way, and of course, when you’re leading and being caught up during the season, you naturally see it’s not what you want. But that’s how the rules are written, everyone agreed, and you just have to deal with it.”

Verstappen believes Red Bull’s true potential last weekend was obscured by damage to his car’s floor in qualifying and disrupted testing due to rain.

“We can see the progress. I think this weekend was a bit random, with just a few tests on the car. And then, of course, the weather doesn’t help.”

“But when you think about it, if we hadn’t had damage to the floor, we would certainly have been in the fight for pole. So that’s positive.”

“We just have to keep pushing. We have to keep bringing improvements, and I know they will come, and hopefully, they will be a bit better than the other teams’ improvements.”

Verstappen Red Bull Can Still Improve RB20

Verstappen: Red Bull Can Still Improve RB20 Verstappen: Red Bull Can Still Improve RB20

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