Christian Horner is confident that resolving Red Bull's ride issues with its RB20 can be done without sacrificing the car's aerodynamic efficiency.
The championship winning team hit a roadblock last month in Monaco, where the tight and twisty street circuit exposed a weakness in its car's handling, particularly over kerbs and bumps.
The issue was less severe but still present around the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Montreal last weekend where Max Verstappen claimed his 60th career win in F1.
The culprit of the RB20’s handling complications resides in the car’s aerodynamic design which requires very stiff suspension settings, a low compliance that results in a less forgiving ride for its drivers and sudden instability over bumps and kerbs.
While the team is actively working on a solution to mitigate the issue, a quick fix seems unlikely.
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However, Horner believes there’s a way to rectify the car's ride quality without compromising its aerodynamic prowess.
And the Briton took encouragement in the RB20’s strong performance in Montreal’s final sector despite the presence of a few high kerbs, especially at the final chicane.
"All of it has to work in tandem, so you are pushing the aerodynamic platform of the car, but you want the car to ride kerbs,” commented Horner, quoted by Motorsport.com.
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“What was encouraging was that our sector three this weekend was competitive, even with the stiffness of the car rattling over that last chicane.
“If you look throughout the running, we were very competitive there. So, despite it being uncomfortable, we were still able to be quick enough.
“I think there is genuine performance there so if we can unlock that, then we will see it free up lap time.
“We understand what our issues are, and it was a great recovery from Monaco a couple of weeks ago. To win a race like that was a very rewarding and big one to win."
While also encouraged by Red Bull’s ability to understand its ride issues, Verstappen noted that the problem was significantly mitigated in the Canadian Grand Prix due to the track conditions that forced drivers to steer clear of the circuit’s kerbs.
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“I really think that we can solve this without influencing any other part of the car,” said the Dutchman.
“Today, it's more like, what kerb riding, because I felt that was non-existent in the race.
“We know that this is a weakness and I also know that we are flat out working on it to try and fix it, because I really feel like it's quite a big performance limitation for us at the moment.
“Then, of course, naturally, I'm also looking forward to some tracks maybe where we don't really need to take too many kerbs or too many bumps.”
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