Red Bull bringing “fairly subtle” upgrade for Spanish GP
Red Bull will introduce a “fairly subtle” upgrade package that will act as an “evolution” to its 2019 Formula 1 car for this weekend’s Spanish Grand Prix.
In past seasons, Red Bull has traditionally introduced a major update to its car in Spain, but following a strong start to the campaign, it is instead planning a series of smaller upgrades in a bid to further close the gap to the leading duo of Mercedes and Ferrari.
Red Bull will introduce a “fairly subtle” upgrade package that will act as an “evolution” to its 2019 Formula 1 car for this weekend’s Spanish Grand Prix.
In past seasons, Red Bull has traditionally introduced a major update to its car in Spain, but following a strong start to the campaign, it is instead planning a series of smaller upgrades in a bid to further close the gap to the leading duo of Mercedes and Ferrari.
Red Bull kicked off the 2019 season and its new Honda engine partnership with a podium in Melbourne, before taking consecutive fourth place finishes in the following three rounds in Bahrain, China and Baku.
“It’s fairly subtle and it’s just evolution,” Horner explained. “So it’ll be the usual front and rear wings upgrades. But it’s evolution rather than revolution.”
The team struggled with tyre warm up at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix but Horner said the updates will not be restricted to one area of performance.
“I think all your development is focused on different aspects of balance, degradation, all of those things,” he added.
“We had very good tyre duration [in Baku], we struggled a little bit on warm up. It’s always about finding that trade.”
Max Verstappen returns to the circuit he scored his first F1 victory at sitting fourth in the drivers’ standings, behind only the Mercedes pair of Valtteri Bottas and Lewis Hamilton, and Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel, who he trails by a single point.
“Our next race is back in Europe at Barcelona Circuit, which is the track where I won my first F1 race, so it is always a special one for me,” Verstappen said.
“It’s a good track and we all test there during pre-season so hopefully that will help us set-up the car straight away.
“Of course, the temperatures will be a bit different and everyone is bringing new parts to their cars, so it will be interesting to see how competitive we can be.
“There are some fast corners so it’s always a challenging circuit, and being closer to home, it will be good to see so many fans in the grandstands.
“For us, the main thing is to keep maximising our results while we hopefully continue to close the gap to the championship leaders.”
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