Red Bull boss Christian Horner has revealed that extreme understeer was behind the struggle that Max Verstappen endured in the Formula 1 United States Grand Prix.
Red Bull’s weekend commenced on an encouraging note as Verstappen utilised its latest updates to convert pole position into a first win since June in the Sprint race.
But while he also lined up on the front row in the main event, Verstappen was unable to replicate his earlier weekend exploits as Red Bull’s competitiveness regressed.
The Dutchman was powerless to rival either Ferrari driver and was under intense pressure from championship rival Lando Norris’ McLaren through the closing stages.
Norris managed to get past the Red Bull on Lap 52, but his move was completed outside track limits and a subsequent five-second penalty saw Verstappen take third.
Horner has attributed Red Bull’s speed not translating to the race to an understeering balance on the RB20 accentuating the degradation that Verstappen experienced.
“I need to go to the debrief shortly but I think we seem to engineer into the car a bit more understeer today,” Horner told media including Motorsport Week.
“And that then sort of killed the front tyres and compared to yesterday where we didn’t have any understeer the car was very quick.
“So we were quick, quick enough to get the pole for the Sprint, won the Sprint and had good degradation in the Sprint.
“And the McLaren looked to be the one that was fading. Ferrari looked quick all weekend in fairness.
“Then arguably we should have had the pole yesterday.
“We had a car that was very strong in quali and then the weakest that we’ve been has been really on the Hard tyre with a bit too much understeer throughout the race.”
Verstappen’s mid-race ‘issue’ explained
Verstappen’s race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase was heard telling his driver in the first stint that Red Bull had “found an issue” that would be solved at his sole pit stop.
The three-time F1 champion conceded post-race that he had “no clue” about the problem that saw him drop close to 10 seconds down on race leader Charles Leclerc.
However, Horner has disclosed that Lambiase’s radio was related to a planned change to the front wing angle on Verstappen’s RB20 to temper the chronic understeer.
“That was relative to the understeer he had in the car,” Horner added when asked about the reported hitch on Verstappen’s car.
“So, it was, you know, really about how much front wing to put into the car, you know, for the Hard tyre.”
READ MORE: Max Verstappen issues ‘very clear’ verdict on Lando Norris penalty in F1 US GP
