Verstappen highlights Red Bull weakness they must improve

verstappen, abu dhabi gp — Photo: © LAT Images

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Verstappen identifies Red Bull weakness they must improve

The RB19 suffered only one defeat in 2023 but the world champion feels the team can still improve

Tyler Rowlinson

Friday 29 December 2023 20:57 Updated: 22:32

Max Verstappen and Red Bull technical director Pierre Wache have made it clear that the team needs to improve on low-speed corners and kerbs, particularly at street circuits.

Both of these factors combined at Singapore, where Carlos Sainz claimed victory for Ferrari in what was Red Bull’s only defeat in 2023, with the team making mistakes in adjusting the ride height settings.

Despite the RB19 being statistically the most dominant car in F1 history, Verstappen told Autosport that “it helps if we know what direction we are working in” when he discussed the improvements needed for 2024 amid the “not ideal” impact of Red Bull’s reduced development time for this season after its penalty for breaching the 2021 cost cap.

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But Verstappen feels the team still need to improve at low speed corners and kerbs

Red Bull seek to improve at low-speed corners

“Mainly I think just street circuits and low-speed, kerbing," the Dutchman replied when asked where Red Bull can improve.

“These kind of things, I think we are not the best at the moment.”

Technical director Wache backed Verstappen’s assessment when the comments were put to him at the final race of the season in Abu Dhabi, but he stressed that the team have to be careful not to sacrifice the RB19’s best qualities when addressing the areas where it struggled.

“The team sees that same weakness, maybe in a different perspective than Max because Max is [a driver], but it’s more or less summarised quite well where we have to work for next year,” he said.

“Low-speed is clearly [one area]. 90-degree corners we are not the best, as you could see in quali in Baku and a different track [type there]. Singapore also was not a fantastic one.

Technical director Pierre Wache echoed the world champion's feelings

“And also, our capacity to ride the kerbs and the bumpy tracks is also not perfect and we have to improve this area.”

He added: “In our system and in this business, you never have nothing for free. “You can improve the overall potential of something, but most of the time it’s also affecting some other aspect of the car.

“[So], we have to be very careful not to destroy what we built in terms of strengths.

“It’s what we are trying to do – improve our weaknesses without compromising too much the strengths we have.”

Red Bull Max Verstappen Ferrari Carlos Sainz RB19 Pierre Wache