Why Red Bull is introducing 'downgrades' at the Dutch GP

“I prefer to talk about downgrades,” was Helmut Marko's joking response to a question this weekend regarding the potential for Red Bull upgrades at the Dutch Grand Prix.

While it appeared to be nothing more than a quip, there does appear to be something deeper going on at Red Bull.

Things have not been going smoothly at the Milton Keynes-based squad in recent months. Max Verstappen started the season in incredibly dominant fashion, winning four of the first five races before facing stiff competition.

McLaren and Mercedes in particular quickly closed the gap, while Red Bull's upgrades didn't seem to help it much. In Hungary, Verstappen received brand new parts for his RB20, but the gains were next to none, according to the reigning world champion.

Verstappen therefore announced Red Bull was going to use the summer break to analyse the situation. It is only natural for the the situation to be assessed, but answers had to follow. 

Had Red Bull lost its way somewhere along the development push with certain components and updates not working as expected? Perhaps it could be corrected before the all-important Dutch Grand Prix as Verstappen aims to defend a 78-point lead over Lando Norris across the final 10 races, while the constructors' title is wide open.

The 26-year-old Verstappen himself said about the summer break analysis: “Of course we are busy with that. 

“Hopefully we will get some answers this weekend. From there we'll go forward and see what we can still find and improve on the car."

Downgrades?

Coming back to Marko's woes, the Austrian seems to hint that Red Bull has downgraded some parts of the RB20. 

Marko previously stated the struggling Sergio Perez would perform strongly once again in a predictable car, which is precisely Red Bull's Achilles' heel at the moment. The updates of late have caused the car to react unpredictably, meaning good performances have been harder to come by.

Don't be surprised if Perez and perhaps even Verstappen start the Dutch and Italian Grand Prix with a different configuration. 

It is likely that parts of yesteryear will be used, because up to and including the Chinese Grand Prix there seemed to be no problem for the Milton Keynes-based team. There, Red Bull was on average seven-tenths to a second faster than its closest rivals.

So there is some truth in Marko's words - it is quite possible that the evaluation revealed that certain updates did not work properly.

Red Bull is committed to making the car more stable again and regaining the initiative in the championship.