Red Bull senses progress with its “three watches” correlation mismatch

Red Bull Formula 1 team boss Christian Horner recently likened correlation issues between his team’s wind tunnel, CFD data and real RB20 car to having three watches that each tell different times.

Key to making progress on track was finding out which device was the most accurate, and then trusting that to help deliver gains.

In real-life terms, Red Bull’s conclusion was that its wind tunnel data had been out from what was needed – which had opened up the wrong direction taken with its Imola floor.

But while the team may not yet be in a position to return to the dominant form it started the 2024 campaign with, there are at least signs of progress being made in getting its data all lined up.

And, with the cocktail of different floor parts it brought for its Baku specification having shown some encouraging pace in Sergio Perez’s hands, there is a feeling that the squad can start to make the push forward it needs to lock horns on more equal terms with McLaren and Ferrari.

Reflecting on where things were at with the team now ahead of the Singapore GP, Horner told Autosport: “The watches are starting to synchronise a bit better, which does tend to happen when things start to behave themselves.

“The guys and girls here [at Red Bull] are doing an incredible job. They’re working incredible hours, and nobody’s giving up on anything – particularly in the constructors’ championship.

“We were unlucky not to come out of Baku with more than it gave us, but there’s still a lot of racing to do. We’re acutely aware of the performance of our rivals and everybody’s pushing.”

While Max Verstappen had a more difficult time in Azerbaijan than his team-mate, this was put down to a wrong set-up direction that was taken into qualifying – and then could not be rolled back on because of parc ferme restrictions.

But it is Perez’s pace that has left Horner feeling that there is potential for a step back to the front for Red Bull after a pretty challenging period.

“We’ll take a bit of confidence out of Checo’s performance in Azerbaijan because he followed within 1.5 seconds, for 98% of the race, of the first three,” he said. “There’s obviously lessons out of it.

“There’s some changes that we made on Max’s car following P3 that I think, with complete hindsight, if we could go back and change them, we would have done.

“But…