Red Bull's Head of Engineering Paul Monaghan revealed that the team studied the DRS defect after Spain and managed to find a solution - which will be tested in Baku, with the longest straight of the season
Red Bull has been suffering from Max Verstappen's car's moving wing - and not for a long time. The problem first appeared as recently as last year, specifically at the races in Brazil and Qatar, but seemed to be resolved for the 2022 season. However, the DRS gave the team a headache again in Spain, and the Taurinos are hoping that Baku will confirm the resolution found for the defect.
The thing is, despite having managed to think of a way to solve the problem, the low speeds of Monaco do not represent a real test. However, the Azerbaijan track simply has the longest straight on the calendar, which will indeed indicate whether the issue is resolved.
"I think if we are honest, our problem with the DRS was self-caused. So now we've learned from our painful lessons," said Red Bull engineering chief Paul Monaghan. "There is some relief after the work that really smart people have done, the research and the checks. They did a phenomenal job in a very short period of time," he praised.
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"The challenge has changed from circuit to circuit, the waiting time changes, the opening speed, the conditions themselves change," he explained. "I'm confident, much happier with what we learned in Spain. I suppose the annoying part was the lesson we got on a silver platter, so we took that one on the chin and moved on," he joked.
Red Bull's head of engineering also tried to explain the difference between the two tracks, arguing that the aerodynamic load of a car at 300 km/h is completely different to one that opens its wing at the start of the straight at Monte Carlo, for example. Despite the setback, Paul showed confidence that the issue will not bother his team again.
"Baku presents some different problems," Monaghan continued. "The opening speed [in Monaco] is 160 km/h, in Baku it's 300 km/h. So it's not really about the weight on the wing, it's opening going against your own aerodynamic load. I think it would be foolish to rest on our laurels. We know what we did wrong. It was our duty to fix it, and so far, we're fine," he concluded.
Red Bull will start to really see if their work has worked as early as this weekend in Baku. The Azerbaijan GP is scheduled to take place between June 10 and 12.