Red Bull’s Decline: Is McLaren’s Front Wing the Secret Weapon?
Sep.1 - Red Bull could be about to put the current McLaren and Mercedes-style front wing designs back under the spotlight, as the previously-dominant team slides even further down the grid.
Lando Norris, on pole at Monza compared to Max Verstappen's P7, could close the 70-point gap to the championship leader by a full 20 points on Sunday.
"If this is about the championship, then I'm not going to answer the question," McLaren's Norris snapped at a reporter for Viaplay after qualifying.
"That's a fact," he added about the hypothetical points scenario for Sunday's Italian GP, "but the race still has to be run, so I haven't made up any points yet."
The entire F1 paddock, including Red Bull, are wondering what has gone wrong lately for Red Bull.
McLaren CEO Zak Brown has his theory.
"A lot has happened there," he told De Telegraaf. "With Rob Marshall, Adrian Newey and Jonathan Wheatley, they've lost a lot of experience and talent in a short space of time.
"You can't tell me that hasn't had an impact," Brown insisted.
"Also when you look at the morale of the staff, there may be more people who also want to leave. Looking at Red Bull from the outside, it seems like a disrupted place.
"Christian Horner and Helmut Marko sometimes say completely opposite things in the media, while Andrea Stella and I tend to finish each other's sentences."
However, Red Bull consultant Marko told ORF after qualifying at Monza that the team still has unanswered questions about the way the McLaren and Mercedes front wings work - and flex.
"The front wing of McLaren and Mercedes must be analysed," Marko said on Saturday.
Dutch racing personality Tom Coronel told Viaplay: "Everyone wants to know McLaren's secret, because it's worth a lot of money.
"If you do well with high downforce and low downforce, like Zandvoort and now Monza, and you're good with tyre management everywhere, then they're going to be collecting big trophies for the rest of the season."
Former Red Bull driver Robert Doornbos thinks Red Bull's handling problems are hurting Verstappen more than his teammate Sergio Perez - with the gap between them much smaller in the past two grand prix weekends.
"When the car is less good, the gap between Max and Perez is smaller," he told Ziggo Sport. "That indicates that there is no balance, so the car can no longer listen to Max's talent.
"They've even gone back to the original floor from Bahrain - that's race one," Doornbos exclaimed. "They're trying to figure out where they made the wrong development choices.
"Personally, I think there's a bit of a secret in these front wings. Christian Horner is saying it too. They're doing something different with them."
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