Max Verstappen says Red Bull now fighting new issue that ‘wasn’t there’ at the start of the year

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Max Verstappen believes Red Bull is now fighting an issue with the RB20 that was not present at the start of the Formula 1 season.

The Dutchman lost his home race despite taking the lead from Lando Norris into the first corner after the McLaren driver had too much wheel spin in the second phase of his start.

Max Verstappen held on to the lead for 18 laps before Norris recovered and retook the lead, eventually building up a gap that was 22 seconds at the flag to the Red Bull driver.

After the race during the cool-down lap, Norris made a two-word dig at Verstappen by stealing his catchphrase that became synonymous with his dominant wins last year.

Verstappen suffered badly from tyre degradation throughout the race, remarking to his engineer just a handful of laps after both stints that his tyres were out of grip. The Dutchman elaborated on their problems when discussing it in the post-race press conference.

Max Verstappen details Red Bull’s issue with RB20

The Dutchman believes there is a problem with the RB20 that did not exist at the start of the season after Red Bull brought upgrades to their car midway through the year.

This is impacting their tyre performance both in qualifying and in the races, thus leading to sizable gaps to their rivals McLaren.

“It wasn’t there in the first few races, but something in the car has made it more difficult to drive and it’s very hard to pinpoint where that is coming from at the moment,” said Verstappen.

“That is then hurting our one-lap performance and also our long run.”

Red Bull main ‘problem’ identified

At the Belgian Grand Prix, both Verstappen and Sergio Perez suffered from tyre degradation leading the latter to finish in seventh after starting on the front row.

Perez could be heard complaining about the car balance during the Belgian GP, while Verstappen made the same remarks during the race at Zandvoort.

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Red Bull has previously been accused of breaking the ‘golden rules’ of this generation of ground-effect cars with their latest upgrades.

Technical director Pierre Wache has previously identified why Red Bull has struggled to produce effective upgrades, attributing it to the aerodynamic testing restrictions that teams are bound to in the current ruleset.