Red Bull started the Las Vegas Grand Prix weekend off in worrying fashion, and it appeared that any chances of claiming the drivers’ championship early were far-fetched.
Max Verstappen finished 17th during FP2 on Friday, as their rivals began to ramp up preparations for the rest of the weekend.
They found a solution to their problems in the end, as the four-time champion was able to drag his car to a fifth-place finish in the race.
Beating title rival Lando Norris was enough to claim the glory, as McLaren struggled at the hands of low temperatures all weekend.
Red Bull completed rear wing ‘bodge job’ in Las Vegas
Faced with the prospect of losing up to six-tenths per second every lap on the straights, Red Bull brought a dramatic solution to the Las Vegas Grand Prix.
Due to cost cap reasons, Red Bull doesn’t have a low downforce specification rear wing, which is important at a circuit like Vegas.
They decided to cut parts of their normal rear wing off to reduce drag, at the cost of less DRS efficiency and downforce, which The Race’s Scott Mitchell-Malm went into more detail about on their YouTube channel.
“It came with an unusual bodge job on his car,” he said. “Red Bull has been on the back foot a lot over the second half of 2024 and performed plenty of on-site troubleshooting across many races.
“But, it took emergency measures to a new extreme in Vegas with a crude solution to the glaring rear wing problem it encountered on the first day of practice.
“Red Bull’s rear wing was too big for the demands of the track layout.”
Can Red Bull still win the constructors’ championship?
Now they have sealed one crown, their attention turns to retaining the other as the constructors’ title is yet to be settled.
Both McLaren and Ferrari are in better positions, with Red Bull needed to outscore the former by at least 54 points in two races.
For most of the season, scoring heavy points has been Verstappen’s task, but there’s only so much he can do and he would need help from his teammate.
READ MORE: Max Verstappen told he has the same ‘god-given talent’ as Ayrton Senna by Martin Brundle
Sergio Perez’s recent form suggests that the fight is pretty much already over and that the top two will be left to fight it out to end their respective 16-year title droughts.
It’s a shame, because if the Mexican had performed at a slightly higher level, then there would be a thrilling and rare three-way fight for the constructors’ incoming with two races to go.
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