Following a tough Italian Grand Prix, Max Verstappen admits the 2020 Red Bull is “just not a very fast car”.
The Dutchman only qualified fifth at Monza, despite the new limit on engine modes which the team had hoped would help close the gap to Mercedes.
Then on race day, a poor start and bad luck during the safety car/ red flag phase dropped Max out of the points before an engine problem resulted in his second retirement of the season.
“I never expected to fight Mercedes here,” he said. “And I was very interested to see how our car was going to go on low downforce.
“But I think it highlighted our issues already the whole year, that it’s just not a very fast car.
“Of course we are a bit down on power to Mercedes, especially, and that’s a given,” he added. “But that is not the deficit we have to them, at the moment. It’s not that big, the deficit in power.
“From our side we just didn’t have a good balance in the car, but not only that, I think we were just lacking grip.”
Throughout this year, Red Bull has struggled with unpredictable handling on the RB16 with the front end inparticular thought to be a little too aggressive in terms of balance and turn-in.
Of course, usually the cars the team create are credited to chief technical officer Adrian Newey, but team boss Christian Horner revealed the veteran designer is only now refocusing on F1 again after working with Aston Martin.
“Obviously the last three or four years he’s been very much involved in the Valkyrie project during a period where he didn’t enjoy Formula 1 quite as much because, with the power unit we had at the time, we couldn’t compete,” he explained.
“Now obviously he sees that we’re in a much more competitive position. So I think he’s enjoying what he’s doing, he’s motivated. It keeps him young. And he’s still got a huge work rate which keeps the young guys on their toes.”
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While that news might excite Red Bull fans, Horner doesn’t believe Newey’s return will be a gamechanger.
“It’s never just about one person, as we all know,” he said. “Adrian in his function does a great job in mentoring and leading the technical side of the team, but we’ve got great strength and depth. It’s not just about one role, about one person.
“As Adrian over the last couple of years has stepped back with the Valkyrie project, we’ve brought in and strengthened the technical group with the likes of Pierre Wache and so on and the team has continued to win during that period,” he added.
“The team will always be obviously stronger with Adrian in it and focussed on Formula 1.”