As Max Verstappen all but gives up on titles, Christian Horner claims that a correlation issue is at the heart of the RB20's current problems.

"Last year we had a great car, which was the most dominant car ever, and we basically turned it into a monster, said the three-time world champion after Sunday's Italian Grand Prix.

"It's up to the team to come with lot of changes with the car," he added, because we basically went from a very dominant car to an undriveable car in the space of, what, six to eight months."

The RB20's decline has coincided with the continued improvement of the McLaren, and while Ferrari has also taken a step forward Mercedes' performance - not for the first time - appears to be track dependent.

While some, not least Zak Brown - under the guidance of the likes of the Sky Sports team - cite the behind the scenes dramas at Red Bull which have included the shock departure of Adrian Newey, Horner has turned to the old standby of correlation issues.

"With the pace we had today both championships absolutely will be under pressure," the Briton told reporters at race end, "for sure, we have to turn the situation around very quickly.

"I think this circuit has exposed the deficiencies we have in the car versus last year," he added. "And I think that we have a very clear issue which has been highlighted this weekend. We know we have to get on top of and address it, otherwise we put ourselves under massive pressure."

Seemingly, the ultra-low downforce requirements of the Monza track highlighted the RB20's issues more than at conventional circuits.

"I think on others perhaps running more downforce hides some of the balance issues we have," said Horner. "And you can see that we have a disconnection in balance that just isn't working.

"As soon as you end up in that situation, you're harder on tyres, you end up compensating, you move the balance around, you secure one problem and create another, so you just end up in a vicious circle."

In particular, Horner pointed to qualifying when Verstappen was were unable to improve on fresh rubber, whereas he could on a scrubbed set of tyres.

"I think 100% it's balance," he said, "we haven't got a connection between front and rear. "Max can't lean on the rear on the way into the corner, or Checo, they end up compensating for that, creating understeer, and it's such a fine line.

"You look at qualifying, on a scrubbed tyre with a balance we can do a 1:19.6s that matched the best times. Then two new set of tyres on and the balance is completely out and we go four-and-a-half tenths slower.

"If you dig into it there were some of these issues early in the year," he added, "even when we were winning races by 20 seconds. I think that recent upgrades, whilst it put load on the car, it's disconnected the front and rear, and we can see that, our wind tunnel doesn't say that, but the track says that.

"So it's getting on top of that, because obviously when you have that it means you can't trust your tools, so then you have to go back to track data and previous experience."

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READERS COMMENTS

1. Posted by estoril85, 03/09/2024 18:18

"The car has clearly been designed around the gravity brake bias device, which tbf to RB was not cheating as the rules stipulated equal pressure to the axle, they have now been amended to require equal pressure to each brake on said axle. Much as I dislike the attitude with which RB goes racing and the constant whinging from Horner & Perez (Max just moans about Lewis...even when it's George! lol!)it was an ingenious device, typical Newey brilliance but now it's outlawed they face an understeering car that requires larger than they would like amounts of front wing to keep it pointed round the corners, hence all the moaning about Mclaren & Mercedes front wings....Fun and games , it's not called the Piranha club for nothing. I would like to see McLaren take both titles just to see the great team back winning titles but I want to see a proper battle like 2021 ( but not decided like 2021 lol!)"

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2. Posted by kenji, 03/09/2024 11:37

"A F1 car is an inanimate object therefore someone ,somewhere, has done something to change the characteristics hence the current situation. Perhaps a quick call to Rene [Descartes] for a few tips on how to implement his Cartesian theory of deductive reasoning. Should be just the thing but maybe bit late for Baku. Can't let the 'deterministas' get their own way....."

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3. Posted by Spindoctor, 03/09/2024 11:19

"@Max Noble - Just so & therein lies the rub. Testing enabled the others an opportunity to catch up if a particular team benefitted disproportionately from a rule change. In Schumacher's case it enabled Ferrari to stay ahead too, though that slightly implies Michael was less brilliant than he actually was, both in developing & racing the cars.

RBR & the Verstappen clan have benefitted hugely from the current ban on in-season testing. Up 'til very recently it has effectively stymied the opposition's attempts to catch up with RBR's cars of this generation. Now the others have not merely caught up, but seem to have out-developed the RB20, presumably because their modelling was better than RBR's.
Putting aside whispers about dodgy braking tricks (do FIA *really* ban wheezes nobody is using?), it seems the wheels really have come off the RB20's development post Newey.

As to how "exciting" or otherwise it would be if.... That's the 64k question!
My guess is that had teams been able to do Fezza\Schumacher levels of testing, RBR would not have dominated for so long, if at all. This alone would have injected a good dose of excitement into the last few years...."

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4. Posted by Superbird70, 03/09/2024 10:52

"Hmm, 'Computer says, no.'."

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5. Posted by Celtic Tiger, 03/09/2024 7:12

"If they can't sort out why the "computer says no", as Carol Beer was fond of saying, then maybe the next plan of action would be to slap the RB20 sticker over the RB19.

Ironically, Marko has it out for Mercedes and McLaren's front wings. So, if that doesn't bear fruit I imagine the Verstappen corner of Red Bull are going to start warming up the shoulders for some mighty handbag swinging if they don't find a solution fast."

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6. Posted by Max Noble, 03/09/2024 2:15

"Ah! Back in the day Michael and the team would be pounding around Fiorano 23 and a half hours a day to get this style of issue sorted! Now we have to use super computers, CFD modelling, and simulators to attempt to workout what would happen in real life, and it’s not working… so now they are doing it in real life by resetting the car to what it was…!

So… would the championship be more exciting if Red Bull could fix problems the way Michael and Ferrari once did… or is it better to watch them suffer as the play “Guess the problem, with one arm tied behind your back”…?
"

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7. Posted by kenji, 03/09/2024 1:20

"Time to drag out an old English proverb here...'there's many a slip 'twixt cup and the lip'. The devil is in the interpretation."

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8. Posted by Sam 66, 02/09/2024 18:34

"I'm sure there's 12~14 other drivers would like to be in that "undrivable" car"

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9. Posted by Superbird70, 02/09/2024 15:53

"Correlation is not causation."

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