A double -face RB21 and how Red Bull thinks to correct it in Imala

Let’s go back a few days, until the end of the Saudi Arabia Grand Prix. If Max Verstappen, at the exit, would have managed to defend the pole position he had won the previous day and had crossed the finish line in the first place, now he would be leading the classification of the championship. A surprising fact, especially considering that, so far, the McLaren has proven to be the best car on the track.

This leads to three different considerations: first of all, Papaya pilots have not maximized the potential of the car in terms of results, in particular Lando Norris, a pilot who has often demonstrated a great speed but whose propensity to make mistakes is stopping his climbing in the world championship.

The second and third considerations are interrelated: Max Verstappen is taking out everything from Red Bull, but the RB21 at this time also seems to be the only car that can really challenge McLaren. The problem, however, is that the strengths that allow it to fight at the top in circuits full of fast curves or where so much efficiency is needed, they collide with obvious weaknesses.

The last three great consecutive awards are the perfect example of this Red Bull with two faces: on two occasions, specifically in Suzuka and Jeddah, Verstappen entered the fight for success, even triumphing in Japan, while in Baréin the RB21 was placed sadly fourth in grill, also surpassed by Mercedes and Ferrari.

during the triplet both the merits and defects of this car, the most temperamental of those of the head group, came out to light, but also the one with the greatest potential peak among the persecutors. The RB21 could have been the lost bullet of this start of the championship and has perfectly fulfilled that role, alternating high and low.

If in Suzuka Red Bull he had managed to turn the situation at night between Friday and Saturday, in Jeddah the stage was different, because Milton Keynes team, perhaps for the first time this season, arrived on track with a set -up already close to the ideal window. This allowed the attention of the need to alter the tuning to focus directly on the details.

A topic that played a decisive role in the rest of the weekend, for example in the management of thermal degradation of the tires with which Verstappen was found on Friday, refining the set -up -to -step tuning without having to resort to the classic “miraculous” work night. Leaving aside the mere final result, during the race Verstappen did show very good rhythm.

High speed curves, where a stable and rigid aerodynamic platform is needed, as well as the pronounced DRS effect, brought out the best characteristics of the RB21 that, like its parent, in this type of route it is able to squeeze its qualities to the maximum, to the point of snatching the pole and playing the victory in the race.

What Suzuka and Jeddah have revealed is how Red Bull is capable of those peaks and moments of “magic”, of those who Verstappen is the perfect interpreter, as an artist brushing the curves. Sometimes it can be very competitive in classification, while in the race its performance is directly related to degradation levels, seeing the best performance when consumption has been low.

However, between Jeddah and Suzuka, Bahrain arrived, which exposed all the limitations that do not make RB21 a “universal” car like the MCL39. The strong point of McLaren, beyond aerodynamic load, is precisely to be so competitive and versatile in a wide range of circuits: the same qualities that allowed the RB19 to dominate throughout 2023.

Sakhir’s high temperatures, as well as the characteristics of the track full of dry low to medium curves, and where the traction counts a lot, highlighted the areas in which the RB21 still has a margin of growth.

The long straight straight by closed curves reward strong braking and traction, aspects in which Red Bull must still improve. In the short radio curves, where it tends to suffer from subviring, McLaren has taken a great step forward in the last year, offering more flexibility in its driving.

It is no accident that after Baréin, the entire direction of Red Bull gathered to plan the following steps, including changing the Friday approach, with many experiments that have paid off: “compared to Baréin, we have made great progress, but this circuit also adapts better to us. We are progressing and we are getting a more predictable car, which also works in a wider range,” said Helmut Marko after Jeddah.

The first part of the calendar ‘helped’ the Milton Keynes team with many clues full of fast curves, limiting the slower and high degradation clues. In fact, in China, the Dutchman could have fought again for the podium without strategic errors and questionable decisions, born from the fear of Saturday’s degradation, something unusual for Red Bull.

However, the next challenges begin to be tougher: Miami will be dominated by heat, which will follow Icola, Barcelona and Monaco. The Spanish stage contains fast and slow sections, where McLaren already demonstrated his versatility last year. With the calendar entering a potentially Papaya phase, it is clear that it is no longer enough to extract the maximum of the setting or wait miraculous nights.

For more than a year, Red Bull has been looking for the proper balance and a broader operating window, elements that would provide more configuration opportunities and more flexibility on several tracks. The RB21 will also follow its own path of updates, already in the next races, which will be crucial to determine which path the season will follow and if it will be possible to beat a rapid McLaren “in the batch.”

Helmut Marko, however, is very confident, underlining how, once the problems are understood, Red Bull will continue along the path of the small steps to try to recover the first place but, above all, to make the RB21 a more consistent and efficient car everywhere, eradicating those two faces that often put in crisis in the last year: “We will take small steps, and I think that for imola we should be in a position in which we should We will also have the speed to beat the McLaren, Marko added.