How UK's warm weather is harming Max Verstappen and Red Bull's F1 season

Max Verstappen's would have expected to face quite a few road blocks in the early stages of his quest to retain his Formula 1 drivers' crown.

But the unpredictable nature of weather in the UK probably didn't feature high on his list of major concerns.

For the first time in many years, the Dutchman isn't favourite to be the one lifting the trophy come December, with the McLaren duo of Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris currently ahead in the standings.

And while it would be foolish to write off his chances of adding a fifth consecutive title to his name this season, he certainly has his work cut out to do so, especially if temperatures continue to soar on the British Isles.

High temperatures spark Red Bull problems

Last year, team principal Christian Horner outlined the problems associated with carrying out vital wind tunnel tests at the their base in south-east England as he highlighted the impact that weather conditions can have.

Temperatures in some areas have reached over 25 degrees Celsius this week, and with summer still to come, there could be more trouble looming for Verstappen and Red Bull.

"We've always known about the limitations of the tunnel," Horner told The Race. "But I think those limitations really start to show themselves when we're pushing the aerodynamics of these cars to the limit, when we're looking at the smallest margins.

"It's a relic of the Cold War. It's been good enough to produce some fantastic cars for us over the years.

"But if it was below 5°C we couldn't use it. If it was above 25°C it became quite unstable."

Technical director Pierre Wache, added: "The biggest problem is accuracy and repeatability. When you're developing a new concept, this tunnel can work very well, but when you're fighting a flattening development curve, it's difficult to work with it because we're very dependent on the temperature in the UK.

"There are big swings [in the data] between cold and hot. That's very difficult for us."

What do wind tunnels do?

Teams build a scale model that is 60 per cent larger than the real car to allow engineers to simulate and analyse the aerodynamic characteristics without needing the real car.

A system of fans in a large, empty space must provide a steady and strong airflow, and this wind in the tunnel allows them to study exactly how the scale model responds to the aerodynamic forces.

The scale model can also be put on a kind of very fast treadmill to simulate a road, or in the case of motorsport, a circuit, allowing engineers to measure the forces that affect how the car behaves, such as downforce.

Instruments do not match data on track

The Red Bull has a very narrow operating window, which means that they have relatively little margin in which all sorts of factors, such as tyre temperature and set-up, have to come together to make the car work properly.

Verstappen can still drive around that somewhat, but Sergio Perez and Liam Lawson couldn't, and Yuki Tsunoda hasn't exactly been setting the heather alight either.

The team's star man, however, is currently suffering from oversteer when turning into the corner and understeer in the middle of the corner, which prevents him from racing aggressively. The problem ultimately stems from the wind tunnel.

"We understand the issues, but the problem is that the solutions that we see with our instruments compared to what we see on track do not correlate," Horner told media in Saudi Arabia.

"The instruments, mainly the wind tunnel, have sent us in a direction that does not correspond to what we see on track.

"You end up with a mixture of what the instruments tell you and what the data on track tells you."

Attention turns to Miami

The 64-time race winner will look to bounce back from a frustrating second-place finish in Jeddah this weekend on a track which holds fond memories.

The 27-year-old stood on top of the podium at the Miami GP 2022 and 2023, and finished second last time out behind Norris on what was the Brit's maiden F1 victory.

Verstappen is almost single-handedly keeping Red Bull's slim constructors' title chances alive, with new team-mate Tsunoda contributing just two points from his three outings to date.

The team currently sit 99 points adrift of leaders and defending champions, McLaren, while Mercedes also hold a slender advantage going in to Round Six.

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