Red Bull says it is stuck with a too-draggy rear wing that has left it on the backfoot against its Formula 1 rivals in the Las Vegas Grand Prix.
World championship leader Max Verstappen ended up 17th fastest in second free practice on Thursday night, with team-mate Sergio Perez two places further back, as the Milton Keynes-based squad lacked pace.
While some of that performance deficit was down to engine settings and a different tyre programme, it is not lost on Red Bull that GPS data shows it to be up to 7km/h slower on the straights than the pace-setting Mercedes and McLaren cars.
This is down to it having not brought the kind of low-drag configuration of rear wing to the high-speed Las Vegas circuit that its rivals have.
And while it tried all it could to improve matters, including removing a Gurney flap, Red Bull says it is going to have to battle on with what it has got because it has no other options available.
Red Bull motorsport advisor Helmut Marko said: “We don’t have another rear wing, a smaller rear wing, as we see it on our competitors. It would be more helpful, for sure.”
Asked if there was a chance the team could fly a less trimmed one out overnight from its Milton Keynes factory, Marko said: “No.”
Beyond the wing aspect, Marko felt that Red Bull’s potential was greater than it showed in practice, but admitted that things were not great.
Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing RB20
Photo by: Jordan McKean – Motorsport Images
“On the short run we didn’t go out with a soft tyre, and the long run was only partly good,” he said.
“Some laps were competitive, but then the rear tyres were disappearing. There were flashes of speed. We just have to get consistency into it.”
But while Marko reckons there is more lap time to come in terms of single lap pace, the degradation on the long run meant things could be more difficult in the race.
“We need more balance,” he said. “On the single lap we can improve. But on the long run, the tyre wear is a problem at the moment.”
But he refused to believe the weekend was a write-off, as much of the focus in the build-up has been on whether Verstappen can clinch his fourth championship title here.
“Tomorrow is a different day,” he added. “You maybe saw it a lot of times. People will be fastest on Friday or Thursday, but it doesn’t mean that they are fast in the race…
“We will, for sure, make a reasonable step.”
