Spanish GP data: Red Bull weak spot discovered as F1 2024 rivals gain ground

Friday Free Practice day for the Spanish GP has confirmed that we will have a very close fight for the podium this weekend, a trend we have been seeing in recent races.

However, the talk of the return of Red Bull’s superior dominance has fallen apart… at least for the time being.

Spanish GP data: A closer look at where Red Bull struggled compared to their rivals

The return to a classic racetrack has been more problematic for some teams and drivers than for others.

While Mercedes and McLaren were comfortable from the beginning, Red Bull and Ferrari struggled more than expected at the Montmelo circuit.

Charles Leclerc complained that his Ferrari was “horrendous”, unlike Carlos Sainz who was feeling more comfortable at home soil. The Spaniard’s SF-24 mounted the new Ferrari floor from the start of FP1 while Leclerc kept the old spec for a direct comparison.

In FP2, Leclerc came into the pits and the mechanics made a significant set-up change to his car: camber, ride-height and balance modifications. It is clear that they will need FP3 to better understand the update package they have brought to Spain.

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More unexpected than Ferrari, who are coming off a race to forget in Canada, were Red Bull’s problems in the high temperatures in Barcelona.

Max Verstappen has complained of understeer and lack of grip on the rear of his car and the data shows that despite being fast in the first and third sector, in the second sector – the slowest and most twisty – Red Bull has major problems compared to its rivals.

Even Sergio Perez, with a car seemingly much more wing loaded than Verstappen’s, was six tenths of a second off Lando Norris’ best second sector of FP2. The Mexican appears to be going through a tough run of form and it seems that Red Bull’s set-up changes between the morning and afternoon did not work for him.

It’s difficult to draw a definitive conclusion as the data always has to be taken with a pinch of salt – as we are missing many variables only available to the teams – but it’s clear that Red Bull has work to do overnight if they want to be in the fight for pole tomorrow.

Perhaps giving Verstappen a more loaded wing or correcting the RB20 aero balance to decrease that lack of grip he was worried about is a good solution seeing that the Red Bull’s straight-line speed is quite competitive.

As a remark, Verstappen asked his race engineer to go back to the old spec front wing used during the morning in FP1 because he was unhappy with the new wing fitted in FP2.

The reigning World Champion is fast in the rest of the sectors and with a small change he could be back in the battle as he was in FP1.

Red Bull has all night to analyse its data and another session before qualifying to find the key to solving its problems. It doesn’t look like a big concern right now, but it hasn’t been an easy Friday for them at all.

And even if Red Bull finally finds the right way, that premonition of Red Bull’s ‘clear’ dominance in Spain as anticipated by their rivals and which they themselves believed could happen, seems unlikely to come true. Not with the performance that the Milton Keynes-based team has shown on track today.

The fight for pole looks set to be a close one, or at least closer than expected and, especially Sergio Perez, needs to make a clear step forward to help his team, which needs him more than ever.

“The competition is getting ever fiercer and having Max Verstappen alone in the face of threats is a problem for Red Bull in the fight for the Constructors’ Championship.

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