Red Bull has revealed that set-up changes Sergio Perez sampled in the Sprint race had a role in Max Verstappen qualifying quickest at the Formula 1 Qatar Grand Prix.
Verstappen’s final run in Q3 was enough to usurp George Russell to take pole position, but he was later slapped with a one-place grid drop for impeding the Mercedes.
But although Verstappen was denied his first pole since June, Red Bull’s turnaround marked a contrast to the problems that it had encountered earlier in the weekend.
Verstappen had bemoaned the balance with his RB20 being “terrible” as sixth place on the grid translated into an underwhelming eighth-place result in the Sprint race.
However, Red Bull’s decision to commit to “aggressive” set-up alterations helped Verstappen to have renewed confidence in the car that enabled him to beat his rivals.
Red Bull boss Christian Horner has admitted that the team’s weak showing in the Sprint prompted it to turn the car inside out in a bid to unlock more competitiveness.
“It’s a great turnaround. I think the engineers and the team back in Milton Keynes have worked very hard,” Horner told Sky Sports F1.
“They’ve got a good set-up on the car, Max has immediately felt [more confident] – his first comment was that it feels better.
“And then he’s just gone out and delivered in the most spectacular way.
“We pretty much threw the kitchen sink at it; pretty much everything you could change, we did change.
“You never know if it’s all going to come together in the balance. And it did, and he was able to really nail it.
“We really struggled yesterday, Turn 1, Turn 2, and particularly the last turn; a little bit at seven as well. And those corners suddenly came alive for us.
“That last lap, it was neck and neck with George going into that last turn and he nailed the last corner, and it was just good enough.”
Perez test run crucial to Red Bull revival
Perez’s SQ1 exit in Sprint Qualifying prompted Red Bull to withdraw his car to the pit lane to impose set-up changes that turned his race into an extended test session.
Horner has admitted that Red Bull utilised the data that it acquired on Perez’s car in the truncated encounter to guide the set-up direction that it used with Verstappen.
“We made a few changes to Checo’s car, taking him out of parc ferme,” Horner explained. “That’s definitely played a part in what we’ve done here for qualifying.
“Obviously looking at the data, there were three corners that we were really bad at yesterday: Turn 1, Turn 2 and the last corner. We managed to address that today.”
Red Bull in the dark on race pace
Like Verstappen, Horner is unsure whether the adaptions Red Bull has made will work as well over a race distance as Verstappen pursues a second win in three races.
“We’re certainly hoping that the changes we made today apply for tomorrow as well,” he added.
“It’s very cold here. Getting these tyres to work is crucial. They lasted well in the race earlier, the degradation was very low and I expect to see that again tomorrow.”
READ MORE – Max Verstappen hails ‘miracle’ Red Bull turnaround to claim shock F1 Qatar pole
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