Max Verstappen has warned Red Bull’s opponents that there are “big” gains to be achieved with the RB20, as long as the team addresses its kerb-riding concerns. Following Red Bull’s dominance last season, when they won all but one grand prix on their way to a championship double, their rivals are closing up. McLaren won in Miami before Lando Norris pushed Verstappen to the finish line in Imola, and Ferrari won in Australia and Monaco.

Charles Leclerc won the latter on a weekend where Red Bull battled with the kerbs and bumps at the Monte Carlo Street Circuit, with Verstappen finishing sixth. The Dutchman stated at the time that Red Bull had been “found out” by a flaw that existed since F1 2022, the first year of ground-effect aerodynamic vehicles.

It is understood that one of the RB20’s secrets is that it requires a firm suspension to generate downforce, which is lost if the suspension is eased. Red Bull is working on a solution, one that Verstappen believes once in place will allow the team to unlock “big” gains in performance. We’re struggling a lot with the kerbing and the bumps, he said. So, we have an area we can work on and improve the car by quite a big margin if we get that under control.

I think that we can solve this without influencing any other part of the car. We know that this is a weakness and I also know that we are flat-out working on it to try and fix it because I feel like it’s quite a big performance limitation for us at the moment, Verstappen added. Despite his struggles, Verstappen won the Canadian Grand Prix to extend his lead in the Drivers’ Championship to 56 points ahead of Charles Leclerc. It was his sixth win of this season.

Team boss Christian Horner revealed Red Bull already made some gains in Montreal where the RB20 was still quick even when riding the kerbs. All of it has to work in tandem, so you are pushing the aerodynamic platform of the car, but you want the car to ride kerbs, he said.

What was encouraging was that our sector three this weekend was competitive, even with the stiffness of the car rattling over that last chicane, he added. If you look throughout the running. we were very competitive there. So, despite it being uncomfortable, we were still able to be quick enough, Horner concluded.