2 weeks Ago By Harry Smith
Max Verstappen ’s chances of claiming a fourth Drivers’ Championship crown in Las Vegas this weekend have been dealt a significant blow after Red Bull admitted to bringing the wrong rear wing to Sin City. In F1, rear wing angles play a significant role in increasing or reducing drag. At tracks where straights are longer and downforce is less important, such as Monza or in Las Vegas this weekend, teams typically bring components that are flatter, giving them higher top speeds.
Red Bull have made a costly error on this front, bringing a rear wing to Las Vegas that is generating far too much drag for the team’s liking. This will have a significant impact on Verstappen’s ability to repeat his race win from a year ago and claim the 2024 World Championship in the process. According to GPS data, the reigning world champions are losing as much as 7kmph in top speed on the straights relative to their rivals, and Verstappen and team-mate Sergio Perez ended FP2 on Friday down in P17 and P19 respectively.
Speaking to Autosport about the team’s predicament, Helmut Marko said: “We don't have another rear wing, a smaller rear wing, as we see it on our competitors. It would be more helpful, for sure." Addressing speculation that the team could import a replacement from Milton Keynes overnight, he replied: “No.
” This places Red Bull in a difficult position heading into Saturday’s action. With Mercedes emerging as surprise frontrunners across FP1 and FP2 and McLaren and Ferrari both strong as expected, the best the Milton Keynes-based team can realistically hope for is the fourth row of the grid - although with Verstappen in the cockpit, more is always on the table. "On the short run, we didn't go out with a soft tyre, and the long run was only partly good," Marko continued.
"Some laps were competitive, but then the rear tyres were disappearing. There were flashes of speed. We just have to get consistency into it.
" Verstappen was also concerned. Dressing down his first two practice sessions, he said: "It was slippery, we struggled a lot with making the tyre work over one lap and especially on the long run. We started off a bit more competitive, but even then, we needed to fine-tune a few things, but the one-lap pace is quite far off.
“But of course, it is unique conditions, but it is the same for everyone. We need to understand what we are doing wrong, but it feels massively tyre-related as the balance of the car is not even wrong. It is just that we have no grip, it is like driving on ice at the moment.
".
