Red Bull explain 'window' worry holding back Verstappen

Christian Horner has explained the reasoning behind Max Verstappen's fluctuating form that has played its part in Red Bull's F1 rivals closing the gap at the top of the championships.

From a position of domination at the start of the season after Verstappen won four of the first five grands prix, the 26-year-old has only won three of the last nine, and none of the last four for his longest drought since late 2020.

Verstappen has still had his moments in the RB20 of late, but not enough to mirror his achievements of last season when the 19 version was all-conquering.

Red Bull has attempted to develop this year's car but despite a range of updates at various stages, they have predominantly failed to add the required performance.

It is in stark contrast to closest rivals McLaren who brought a major upgrade to its car in Miami which propelled it forward again, since when only small increments have been added to keep it in the hunt.

"Their car is in a better window than ours at the moment," said Horner in assessing the two cars. "It has a broader window. Our window seems to be very peaky, and that's what's making it difficult for the engineers, difficult for the drivers.

"So we have to bring balance to the car to make that window broader because it's so critical on temperature and all other relevant factors. It's something the team is very aware of, and working very hard on."

Red Bull has 'performance to bring'

Red Bull added an upgrade package to its cars for the Hungarian Grand Prix, the penultimate race before the current summer break, which allowed Verstappen to qualify just 0.046s behind polesitter Lando Norris in his McLaren.

In the race, however, Verstappen was left bitterly frustrated with how the car performed, with his frank and expletive-laden radio exchanges with engineer Gianpiero Lambiase forming part of the narrative that day en route to him finishing a disappointing fifth.

Red Bull reverted to a more traditional specification to adapt to the challenges of the Spa-Francorchamps circuit for the Belgian GP that followed a week later.

Horner knows, however. the remaining 10 races will not be easy in terms of dialling out the issues with the car.  

"We've got more performance to bring," said Horner. "As I say, we need to expand that operating window of the car.

"If the car is in the right window it qualifies on pole by four-tenths, like in Austria, and in Hungary we missed the pole by a tenth.

"You listen to Max, he's got limitations in the car that he wants [sorting]. He knows where the performance is. The trick is how you translate those issues to solutions, engineering-wise and aerodynamically."