Max Verstappen has outlined his frustration with the Red Bull RB18, saying F1 cars “can’t go fast with understeer”.
Max Verstappen won the F1 world championship with four races to go in the 2022 season with a total of 15 wins, but title rival Charles Leclerc (Ferrari) won two of the first three events. was mentioned.
Ferrari may have won more in the first half, but the team’s strategy and reliability issues, among other things, self-destructed.
Red Bull Racing also had fuel pump problems, with Max Verstappen retiring in Bahrain and Australia, won by Charles Leclerc. In addition, Red Bull’s RB18 at the time did not suit Verstappen’s driving style, resulting in him losing out on qualifying positions (including pole in Jeddah) to team-mate Sergio Pérez.
This revolves around the Red Bull RB18 being over the minimum weight limit of 798kg at the start of the season and newly built for the switch to 18″ wheels in slow corners where the ground effects car cannot perform at its best. Added understeer to a package that was already feeling unpredictable handling issues with the 2022 Pirelli front tire.
This compounding problem allows Max Verstappen to allow Red Bull to get the RB18 under the weight limit, applying ballast to load the front axle and create a suitable approach for Verstappen’s wild and oversteer. Until now, he couldn’t have the very sharp and agile front end he liked.
Explaining how his driving style adapted to the requirements of the new ground effects car, Verstappen said the understeer problem was most felt in qualifying when he ran with an almost empty tank.
“Anyway it had to do with the weight of the car,” said Verstappen.
“It was really too heavy creating a balance of understeer and when we started removing that it started to be nimble again.”
“I’m less restless and more agile. I’ve been able to fully utilize the front end. After all, that’s also how you drive a really fast car.”
“The car can’t go fast with understeer. It’s impossible.”
“Especially this year’s tires were a little more limited in understeer. You can’t have a car like that.”
Max Verstappen, who won six races in the first half of the season before the lighter RB18 allowed him to really do his best from the summer onwards, said how he adapted to avoid the understeer problem. When asked about it, he said, “Honestly, it mostly came from the weights.”
“But the updates we made to the car also helped.”
“It certainly wasn’t easy where it was important to learn the tires and really understand how to keep them better.”
Category: F1 / Max Verstappen / red bull
