Bad news for Red Bull rivals as defending F1 champions yet to unleash full potential of the upgrades introduced in Baku

There's bad news for rival teams as Red Bull is yet to explore the full potential of the upgrades it introduced at the 2023 Azerbaijan GP. The track in Miami will give the team better clarity regarding the working of its upgrades.

The new upgraded RB19 that featured in Baku was touted to be three-tenths quicker than before. The new body around the radiator mouths, with corrective annexes implemented at the outer edge of the bottom and at the lateral drift, had to be worth three-tenths.

However, only half of these improvements were noticed on the car, implying that the team is yet to fully discover their true pace. This is a worrying prospect for rival teams as the Bulls are currently untouchable.

Red Bull will be looking at the Miami GP as a testing ground to understand their new upgrades better.

The Anglo-Austrian team has won each of the four races so far this year, proving their dominance. Max Verstappen is once again leading the drivers' standings but has his teammate Sergio Perez only six points behind him after four races.

It will be interesting to follow Red Bull's development considering the wind tunnel testing penalty they are to incur later in the season.

Does Red Bull develop their car around Max Verstappen?

According to former Red Bull race engineer Blake Hinsey, the team is not focused on developing the car to specifically cater to Max Verstappen's driving style. Instead, Hinsey suggests that the Austrian team invests effort in analyzing why Verstappen's teammates are unable to perform at the same level as the Dutch driver.

Despite Max Verstappen's established status as Red Bull's lead driver, there is a widespread belief that the team customizes the car to cater to his driving preferences. However, Hinsey, who has had prior experience working with the team, refutes this notion, stating that the team does not engage in such practices.

Speaking on the Sky Sports F1 podcast, Hinsey spoke about car development and said:

"Having developed all the way from 2015 to 2022 cars in the simulator, I don't ever remember seeing one of those things where you're pushing to help develop the car for the lead driver."

"Both of the drivers are giving feedback and more often, you're actually spending time looking at solutions to find the driver."

Max Verstappen is currently locked in a title battle with his teammate Sergio Perez, who stormed to victory at the 2023 Azerbaijan GP. The two drivers are now separated by just six points in the drivers' standings, with the Dutchman in the lead.