Exclusive: Red Bull reveal knife-edge battle as Max Verstappen confidence builds

Red Bull has revealed just how fine a line it has been walking with the RB22's set-up, with technical director Pierre Waché admitting the team has been wrestling with balance and ride quality over kerbs and bumps for much of the season, but that Max Verstappen is now feeling increasingly at home in the car heading into this weekend's United States Grand Prix.

Verstappen enters the next round at the Circuit of the Americas off the back of back-to-back wins in Malaysia and Singapore, having finished second in Baku before taking victory Sepang.

The Dutchman will be chasing a third consecutive win this weekend, a run that would mark a significant shift in momentum after a difficult middle part of the campaign.

Waché, speaking to RacingNews365, explained that finding the right compromise between low-speed traction and high-speed stability has been one of the trickiest problems the team has faced with the current generation of ground-effect cars. 

Rebalancing the car for one phase of a corner often came at the expense of another, he said.

Asked whether recent gains in kerb riding and overall balance stemmed from Red Bull's upgrades or simply the RB22's inherent characteristics, Waché said: "No, it's a target to solve this problem. I'm not sure we solved it. We improved the situation in low speed. 

"The main positive aspect is that we brought a strong upgrade in Miami, Austria and Baku, with a clear step forward in terms of improvements to achieve our goals, in terms of car behaviour and overall performance. 

"The main benefit, the main aspect for us to improve, was not only low speed; it was an overall performance gain, an overall capacity of the car to be used by the driver. 

"Because when we tried to rebalance the car before, it was a little bit on the edge. When you tried to rebalance high speed, then low speed was struggling, or vice versa."

Max Verstappen finding RB22 sweet spot

The Baku upgrade package, which included revisions to the floor, diffuser and sidepods, appears to have been the turning point. 

Red Bull has continued to build on that foundation through Singapore, with Verstappen's recent results suggesting the RB22 is now a more predictable tool in his hands.

Waché insisted there remains more to come, but that the car's overall connection to the driver has improved markedly since the summer.

"Now the car is a lot more connected," added Waché. "That was our target for sure, and, yeah, we try to do an even better job on kerb riding and stuff. I think we're not perfect there, clearly, but we've improved. 

"It's clearly not there yet. But Max likes the car now. If you ask him, he will not say the car is perfect. But I think with these regulations, it's a difficult problem, and I think we still have room to improve."