Red Bull have claimed they have already decided their set-up to ensure Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez can beat Ferrari at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix. Red Bull chief engineer Paul Monaghan has said the team is not against developing the car in different ways to suit tracks this season.
In particular, he was looking at how downforce and drag packages could be used to get the best result.
Monaghan said: “I think Baku will pull everybody in one particular direction. I think Silverstone, that could produce a bit of difference, shall we say? Spielberg will produce a bit of difference.
“On Hungary, I expect there’ll be a convergence again, but that’s track nature and how we best exploit our lap time, isn’t it? So at the moment, I’d say we’ve got our trade reasonably good. But come [the final race in] Abu Dhabi we might have got it right or wrong.”
Upgrades and development are set to be an important part of the season as teams battle with F1’s new £115million ($140m) budget cap rules.
Team principal Christian Horner has previously claimed the team had some more developments coming ‘later in the summer’ which will help in the fight. Red Bull has had the stronger start to the season, winning five out of the seven races this season.
Max Verstappen leads the Drivers’ Championship by nine points over Charles Leclerc but crucially Sergio Perez is still in the fight. The Mexican is just six points behind the Ferrari driver and 15 behind his team-mate.
Meanwhile. Carlos Sainz’s F1 campaign has suffered various setbacks and the Spaniard lies over 40 points behind the championship leader.
However, Red Bull has claimed they are still learning from Ferrari’s car to ensure they stay one step ahead of their rivals. Monaghan said: “We can look at what the Ferrari is good and bad at. And I think it would be naive of us not to.
“They tend to be quite strong [at] low speed. And then we tend to be better in other areas of the circuit. And there’s a big visual clue if you look occasionally as to how we’ve achieved our lap time and they have achieved theirs.”
