Red Bull boss Christian Horner revealed that using alternative car configurations at the Dutch Grand Prix helped the team to obtain “valuable info” on its Formula 1 car.
The Austrian outfit’s challenging period continued upon F1’s resumption at Zandvoort last weekend as McLaren inflicted a 22-second loss on the reigning champions.
Norris’ dominance culminated in the biggest winning margin seen this season to underline McLaren’s upgraded MCL38 as the quickest car on the grid in recent times.
Horner conceded post-race that McLaren has now become the benchmark team as the gap between them in the Constructors’ Championship has closed to 30 points.
However, Horner is optimistic that Red Bull’s choice to experiment with split car specifications will put it in good stead to rediscover a positive direction with the RB20.
“I think this weekend, we’ve run the cars in different specifications, and I think that has actually given us quite a lot of valuable info,” Horner told Motorsport Week.
“I think the drivers’ feedback has been very positive into that as well, in terms of what they’re feeling from the different set-ups.
“It hopefully now gives a real direction for the engineering group.”
Verstappen’s car was equipped with the floor that he romped to several victories with earlier this season, while team-mate Sergio Perez ran with the updated version.
Despite Perez ending 16 seconds behind his team-mate in sixth, Horner has claimed that the Mexican proved that the newer parts haven’t delivered a backward step.
“I think it was clear that Checo’s race performance and race package got the better of the two,” he assessed.
“But we’ve got obviously 72 laps of data and a lot across two different compounds of tyres now to compare that info.”
Horner has hinted that Verstappen’s margin to Norris wasn’t representative as Red Bull’s gamble to run a more-loaded rear wing expecting high degradation backfired.
Asked whether minimal running earlier in the weekend due to the rain contributed to Red Bull’s woes, Horner responded: “It made us take a few risks.
“Probably with hindsight, we wouldn’t have gone in with as much downforce as we put on, we’ve have had a few more long-run knowledge. But it’s the same for everybody.
“But we’ve actually taken some very useful information out of the weekend, and I think there’s 144 laps worth of data for the engineers to be poring over.”
