Max Verstappen in rare disagreement with Helmut Marko over RB20 ‘downgrades’

Max Verstappen has rejected Helmut Marko’s claim that Red Bull have brought “downgrades” to the RB20 car as the F1 2024 season has progressed.

Having produced the most dominant season in history in 2023, winning all but one race as Verstappen eased to a third consecutive World Championship, Red Bull had been expected to pick up where they left off in F1 2024.

Max Verstappen rejects Helmut Marko’s Red Bull RB20 assessment

Additional reporting by Sam Cooper

Yet despite starting the season with four wins from the first five races – including three one-two finishes for Verstappen and Sergio Perez in Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and Japan – Red Bull’s advantage has been shrinking alarmingly over recent months.

Although Verstappen continues to hold a 78-point lead over Lando Norris in the Drivers’ standings, the 26-year-old has been restricted to just three wins from the last nine rounds.

Red Bull’s advantage over McLaren in the Constructors’ Championship, meanwhile, has been reduced to 42 points ahead of this weekend’s Dutch Grand Prix at Zandvoort.

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With a major upgrade package at last month’s Hungarian Grand Prix failing to bring an material gain as Verstappen finished a distant fifth, Marko quipped that Red Bull’s attempts to improve the RB20 have proven to be “downgrades.”

The Red Bull adviser went on to admit that Red Bull “took a wrong turn somewhere” with development, with the car now “a b***h that only Max can tame.”

Speaking ahead of his home race, Verstappen denied that Red Bull’s upgrades have backfired – and teased that Red Bull are aiming to get their season back on track at the Dutch GP.

“That’s not the case,” he said, per Motorsport.com . “But of course you analyse a lot of things and from there you come up with adjustments.

“That process starts here in Zandvoort.”

Verstappen confirmed that Red Bull conducted a through evaluation of the RB20 during the recent summer break to get to the bottom of their mid-season slump.

He added: “Absolutely, it did happen. We are obviously working flat-out on that and hopefully we will get to see some answers this weekend.

“From there we’ll go forward, to see what we can still find and what we can improve on the car.”

Speaking to media including PlanetF1.com, meanwhile, Perez claimed Red Bull did go down “the wrong path” with the RB20, but found “a lot of stuff” during the mid-season review.

He said: “It was always a very positive break for Red Bull. We were able to find a lot of stuff and I think at least we know where we are with the car right now.

“There’s been an upgrade or two that probably took us in the wrong path.

“I think, just looking back at it right now, we know exactly how the car is working, which is a very good thing because I think it was not so clear in the last few races.

“Whether we can fix it and get back to the level we had earlier, that’s another question.

“But I think in that regard, it’s very positive.”

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