Max Verstappen has admitted delivering parts to solve the kerb-riding problem that has hampered Red Bull in recent Formula 1 races will “take time” to be addressed.
The Dutchman opened the season with four wins in five races to open up a reasonable points advantage, but recent rounds have seen Red Bull come under pressure.
Both McLaren and Ferrari have taken victories in the past three rounds while Verstappen was pushed hard at Imola as Red Bull’s margin has continued to be reduced.
Verstappen struggled to sixth place in Monaco as he lamented his Red Bull RB20 being unable to absorb the bumps and kerbs to extract time as his rivals’ cars could.
Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko revealed there was a correlation issue involved and also claimed the ride height could not be raised without compromising aero gains.
While Verstappen is optimistic a deep delve has helped summon answers, the reigning champion has warned that producing the solutions will not be a swift process.
“It takes time,” Verstappen told Autosport. “It’s you have to redesign things, you have to come up with different things on the car and that is a work in progress.”
Verstappen reiterated during the Monaco weekend that the issue had been prevalent across the current ground effect regulations but not exposed until recent times.
The three-time title winner has suggested that the spotlight is being shone on the hitch now that Red Bull’s vulnerabilities are resulting in the side squandering points.
“It’s been a problem since day one of the new regulations, and this is something that we know and we haven’t been able to fix it yet,” he explained.
“I do think that after Monaco it gave us another wake-up call.
“We had a lot of good meetings at the factory and discussions where I feel like there’s a bit more focus on that now, to try and improve that.
“I feel like, of course, with everyone catching up, naturally you can’t rely on your advantage anymore, even though your kerb riding is bad or whatever. So it definitely needs to be fixed.
“But, yeah, it just takes a bit of time to really make let’s say, big changes on the car, because some things, our design, might need to get redesigned or whatever.
“And you can’t do that with the budget cap.”
Although Verstappen has predicted that Red Bull could be hindered again in Canada this weekend, he insists that the reigning champions remain in a strong position.
“I still think that we can do a good job this year if everything works out,” he added. “But at the moment, yeah, we have to try a few things, see what works best.
“And then, for sure, I think maybe some things will be different next year that maybe are a bit more difficult to let’s say redesign this year.
“But I’m still hopeful and confident that we can do a better job already this year.”
