23/11/2024
NEWS STORY
Max Verstappen admits to frustration at Red Bull's failure to have a circuit specific rear wing for the demands of the Las Vegas track.
Contrary to Helmut Marko's suggestion that the Austrian team had merely brought the wrong wing to Las Vegas, the fact is that there never was such a wing in the first place.
"We didn't forget a rear wing," Christian Horner told Sky Sports on Thursday in a bid to clear up the confusion. "I don't know where it came from," he said of the claim that the team had brought the incorrect wing.
"We don't have a specifically-designed wing for very low downforce which is basically potentially here and Monza," he explained. "The money that is involved in creating that within the cost cap... you've got to pick and choose where you're going to spend it.
"The wing that we have you end up trimming the wing to achieve a top speed. That's what many other teams have done."
"We opted to not make one, we don't have one," said Max Verstappen after a change to his car's set-up allowed him to claim fifth on the grid - ahead of title rival Lando Norris - despite his claim that the RB20 was "undrivable" for much of FP3 just a couple of hours earlier.
"So this is already from 2022," he continued, "I think we never thought we would run it that low... and then with the budget cap, you choose your priorities and we shifted that.
"We would have liked to have a lower wing, a lower-downforce wing, or at least a different shape, a more efficient shape," he admitted. "It's something I will look at but, on the other hand, there's only one more year left with these rules, and I don't know if it makes sense.
"But for me at least, it feels a bit like we throw away two race weekends like this because you definitely lose too much on the straights."
Monza was one of the Dutchman's worst outings of the season, and fearing a repeat the world champion was asked where he feels he's losing out this weekend.
"In the corners and on the straights," he said. "We know that with our wing naturally you lose top speed, especially with the DRS open. It's a bit of a handicap.
"We knew that and that's something that we have to deal with on a track like this track, like Monza. But also besides that, I always felt like, you know, the tyres were a bit of a struggle for us to get them in the right operating window.
"I do think that we did the best we could in qualifying with what we had, and then P5 is the result. We got a bit lucky because with Lewis not putting a lap in, otherwise it would have been P6. I think we really maximised what we could."
Check out our qualifying gallery from Las Vegas here.