Red Bull Racing would have been wishing that there was a two-month between the Italian and Azerbaijan Grand Prix rather than just two weeks.
Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez could only qualify on the fourth row of the grid at Monza and the Dutchman only made up one place thanks in part to George Russell suffering damage on the opening lap.
It means Red Bull only have an eight-point lead over McLaren with eight race weekends to go and no sign of the situation changing any time soon.
Perez has a history of performing well in Baku but the following race in Singapore was the only event Red Bull didn’t win last year.
Helmut Marko doesn’t expect Red Bull to be competitive by then and it’s going to be up to the individual talent possessed by Verstappen and Perez to try and secure every point possible in the meantime.
READ MORE: Everything you need to know about Red Bull Racing from engine to Ford links
Speaking on The Race’s YouTube channel, journalist Scott Mitchell-Malm outlined one scenario where Verstappen appeared to be taking matters into his own hands.
Red Bull’s factory have plenty of work to do to try and figure out which of their recent upgrades has caused the car to become so undrivable.
The performance appears to significantly differ from lap to lap as demonstrated by the difference in Verstappen’s fastest time in Q2 and Q3 in Monza.
Verstappen decided to put an older floor on his RB20 at Zandvoort, however, this ended up being slower than the update Perez had on his car.
What’s more concerning is the fact that Red Bull’s factory wasn’t made aware that Verstappen was making this change.
Max Verstappen opted for the old floor on his Red Bull without telling the factory
Explaining the situation, Mitchell-Malm said: “In trying to unpick the wrong turn it’s taken with its development; Red Bull have conducted various in-weekend experiments.
“At Zandvoort, different floors were run through practice.
“This culminated in Verstappen deciding to switch to an early-season floor for FP3 and using it in the race.
“We understand this was an eventuality that nobody at the factory was consulted on and happened as a result of Verstappen’s desire to rediscover the early season car balance.
READ MORE: Red Bull driver Max Verstappen’s life outside F1 from net worth to girlfriend
“But that didn’t work as the newer floor Perez ran was around two-tenths of a second quicker.
“What’s more the balance of Verstappen’s car was still all over the place.
“Experimentation continued in Friday practice at Monza, the older floor appearing again to gather further data from running with the old spec lower downforce engine cover but come Saturday, both drivers were on the latest floor.”
Max Verstappen’s latest radio messages should worry Red Bull
It’s hard to see Red Bull making the necessary steps forward over the coming weeks to prevent McLaren and possibly even Ferrari from overtaking them in the Constructors’ Championship.
All they can hope for is small improvements heading into the two final triple-headers and Verstappen’s talent securing him his fourth drivers’ title.
McLaren, Mercedes and Ferrari are all capable of taking points off each other which might be the reason Lando Norris doesn’t catch the Dutchman, particularly as his teammate Oscar Piastri is showing no signs of slowing down for him.
Verstappen was incredibly frustrated on the team radio at Monza and not for the first time this year.
Red Bull were on the end of Verstappen’s wrath in Hungary and it’s clear now that he and Perez have known about these problems for some time but they’re finally having a significant impact on results.
If Verstappen is going against what Red Bull’s factory are expecting in terms of parts, it suggests even further disconnect in a team already losing key personnel and struggling to quash suggestions that all is not well behind the scenes.
