Initially, in the last season, Red Bull was not as strong as it was in the end. The team faced a huge early struggle that made them lose four of the 22 races, as Ferrari succeeded in claiming those. Until the British Grand Prix, RB18 was down to its understeer feature because the car was overweight. The overweighing issue of RB18 was the problem that every other team once faced in the season. However, Red Bull soon analyzed the issue and made the car lighter. This ultimately paved the way for 17 successive wins.
RB18 Was Too Heavy Initially!
Recently, in an interview with motorsport.com, Max Verstappen revealed the early-stage problems that deprived him of extracting maximum pace from the RB18. Max admitted that all the issues that he faced last season in the run for his second world championship were related to the weight of the car. He said, “being too heavy created an understeering balance. And, once we started to get rid of that, it started to be more agile.”
After giving a try to remove those problems, RB18 finally started giving the pace. According to Max, after the work on the car, he could use the front end. And at the end of the day, “This is how you really drive a car faster”, said the Red Bull star.
He believes that any Formula One car cannot be fast if it has understeer. It is just IMPOSSIBLE! And, especially with the tyres they had this year, it made the car more understeer and limited too. The two-time world champion gave a bold statement; he said, “You cannot have a car like that. [the car that Red Bull gave him initially, which was down to its understeering issues].
The Upgrades Helped Red Bull Win The 2022 Season, Says Max Verstappen
However, Max Verstappen soon found relief in the season as the team Red Bull brought upgrades in terms of improving the car’s performance. He was quite impressed with how the team mended those problems that made Verstappen lose to Ferrari’s ace, Charles Leclerc. [in three of the starting races]
In addition, Max Verstappen explained the updates and the parts where Red bull needed to work on. Learning the tyres nature and understanding and analyzing how they can preserve them better was not easy, by the way, but the team did it eventually, and they succeeded. 15 Spectacular wins, which is the most that a driver has ever recorded, 454 points, the most one ever secured, and a back-to-back defeat of Lewis Hamilton is the proof of how Red Bull did great in building a strong car despite the understeering nature found in the early stage.
Now for 2023, once again, the team has got to do a lot of hard work. This time they have been penalized with a 10% deduction in the cost cap penalty, plus they have won the constructor’s championship, so its rival Mercedes has a 20% advantage. If Red Bull does not wish to see Mercedes in the front row again, they will have to put in extra efforts, which can ignore the cost cap penalties issues.