Why Gary Anderson was left ‘a bit sad’ after seeing Red Bull’s unprecedented Imola upgrade for Max Verstappen

Max Verstappen and Yuki Tsunoda will both drive an upgraded Red Bull at Imola this weekend. It’s their latest attempt to close the gap to a dominant McLaren.

Lando Norris may be downplaying McLaren’s advantage, but the Woking outfit have won five of the first six races. In Miami, they were over 30 seconds clear of the rest of the pack as Oscar Piastri led home a one-two.

One could argue that Verstappen has outperformed the McLaren drivers in qualifying, where he has a grid-high three poles to his name. But he’s been powerless against the papaya cars in race trim.

Verstappen is 32 points behind Piastri in the championship, a considerable margin but nowhere near enough to rule him out of the title race. Red Bull may soon concede defeat in the constructors’, though, after falling 141 points back.

Gary Anderson says Red Bull upgrades show where F1 teams are at with ground-effect rules

According to a report from AutoRacer, Red Bull’s Imola package focuses on the car’s bodywork after initial adjustments to the floor. They have revised the sidepod entrance, and adopted an ‘unprecedented’ solution underneath in the form of a vertical wing.

The narrative heading into the weekend was that Red Bull’s upgrade would be ‘crucial’ in their pursuit of McLaren. But former F1 designer Gary Anderson played down the scale of the changes.

Writing for The Race, Anderson called it ‘a bit sad’ that this was the biggest update for the first European round of the season. Traditionally, this is the point where teams unveil major innovations.

However, the teams are clearly ‘running out of steam’ in 2025, the fourth and final year of the ground-effect ruleset. There could be more noticeable changes at the Spanish GP, when the FIA will introduce more stringent load tests on the front wings.

Is Max Verstappen about to make a decision that will upset Red Bull?

Following the departure of Adrian Newey in 2024, Red Bull’s new technical department, led by Pierre Wache, are trying to prove themselves. Various upgrades in the last 12 months or so have failed to give Verstappen the tools to win consistently.

Indeed, since his victory at the Spanish GP last June, Verstappen has only won three of the last 20 races. That kind of run seemed fanciful for his rivals during his historic 2023 dominance.

In the gap between Miami and Imola, Verstappen tested a GT3 car at the Nurburgring. He used the alias ‘Franz Hermann’ to try and disguise his participation, but it predictably got out.

Now, it seems Verstappen is committed to making his 24-Hour debut while racing in F1, rather than waiting until he’s retired. It’s not hard to see how that decision could upset some within Red Bull.