What Red Bull discovered about the RB20’s issues this season during private Max Verstappen test

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For the third season in succession, Red Bull Racing enter the summer break in the lead of both championships.

Max Verstappen is on course to win his fourth straight Drivers’ Championship unless he suffers from a real disaster, however, the team standings are looking slightly more precarious.

Red Bull at one point had a significant advantage over the rest of the field with Ferrari appearing to be their closest rivals.

However, the Scuderia have fallen away only for McLaren and Mercedes to come back even stronger and at every race since Monaco they’ve been closing the gap at the top of the standings.

It’s left Red Bull scratching their heads at what’s going wrong with team principal Christian Horner expecting convergence but not to this level with McLaren arguably now possessing the fastest car on the grid and Mercedes having won three of the last four races heading into the summer break.

A report from the Italian outlet Formu1a.uno has shared more information about the lengths Red Bull are going to as they try to fix these problems.

Verstappen has demanded perfection from Red Bull and has been working behind the scenes to try and help the team make significant steps forward.

That’s included taking part in a behind-closed-doors test at Imola driving the RB18 – Red Bull’s 2022 car – and comparing the results to this year’s vehicle.

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Max Verstappen has taken part in Red Bull test to try and uncover RB20’s problems

Red Bull have potentially identified three reasons why their upgrades aren’t working this season with Verstappen having to drive at his limit to try and win races.

It’s left Sergio Perez in a precarious position as he simply can’t extract the same amount of pace out of the RB20 as his teammate.

The report from Formu1a.uno talks about a private test Verstappen took part in at Imola in the RB18.

The team wanted to ‘understand the real differences’ between their 2022 championship-winning car and this year’s machine which may not complete the double for the first time in three seasons.

They discovered that they want to ‘improve the correlation’ from a technical aspect between the two cars in one particular area.

The RB20 struggles to attack curbs and that’s seen them overtaken by Mercedes and McLaren at certain tracks as a result and this is something Red Bull know they need to address.

Verstappen’s private test has now made them more aware of this, and although Ferrari are still trying to work out their upgrade package that was introduced in Spain, Mercedes and McLaren’s progression has ‘raised the alarm’ in Red Bull’s factory.

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Max Verstappen faces an uphill battle to help Red Bull retain the Constructors’ Championship

It would take a huge swing in points over the last 10 race weekends to see Lando Norris – or another driver – replace Verstappen at the top of the Drivers’ Championship.

However, Red Bull could be behind McLaren after the Dutch Grand Prix if they record a one-two finish and both Verstappen and Perez fail to score points.

Perez was given a stay of execution during the summer break when Red Bull could have replaced him if they wanted to.

That doesn’t mean the Mexican is completely safe and Perez’s position at Red Bull could be re-examined after four more races.

If the Anglo-Austrian team have lost their lead in the team standings by then, it wouldn’t be a surprise to see the 34-year-old moved aside.

In fact, Will Buxton made a bold prediction about Perez’s future that would see him replaced for the final triple-header of the season.