Max Verstappen says his Crimson Bull automobile’s dealing with points cannot simply be attributed to correlation points with the Method 1 squad’s ageing wind tunnel.
Crimson Bull has endured a tricky begin to the season with a automobile that’s tough to stability and suffers better tyre put on than the main McLaren.
Verstappen managed to restrict the harm over the primary two rounds after which achieved a shock pole-to-flag victory in Japan, however final weekend’s Bahrain Grand Prix – on a sizzling and abrasive Sakhir circuit that was robust on the rear tyres – additional uncovered the RB21’s weaknesses, with Verstappen ending a lowly sixth.
Afterwards workforce boss Christian Horner admitted Crimson Bull remains to be scuffling with related technical points that left it powerless to defend an preliminary championship lead towards McLaren final yr, with it understood among the quirks it’s experiencing on monitor cannot be totally replicated in its ageing wind tunnel.
Max Verstappen, Crimson Bull Racing
Photograph by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Photographs
The workforce is developing a brand new tunnel at Milton Keynes, however that will not log on earlier than 2027. Verstappen acknowledged that Crimson Bull’s wind tunnel discrepancies aren’t serving to issues, however identified the workforce was nonetheless profitable with the unit in 2022 and 2023, so it could actually’t level all fingers in direction of its infrastructure.
“In fact, we’re not solely proud of it and we’re engaged on a brand new wind tunnel,” Verstappen instructed Dutch media, together with Motorsport.com. “It simply takes time, however we already knew that. It isn’t a brand new factor this season. We noticed again in 2023 that you may’t detect sure issues within the wind tunnel.
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“However the workforce has expertise with that, in order that they know which route they need to develop in. The one problem is that they cannot good some small particulars. But it surely labored in 2022 and 2023, and in 2021 we additionally had a great automobile below completely different laws. So I would not simply attribute all the things to [the wind tunnel].”
When requested if the squad’s present woes are making him pessimistic for its 2026 prospects, he replied: “Effectively that is a totally completely different automobile, so you possibly can’t evaluate that. It might be a distinct workforce that all of a sudden will get all the things proper.”
On this article
Filip Cleeren
Method 1
Max Verstappen
Crimson Bull Racing
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