Christian Horner admits Red Bull’s current car handling problems have been brewing for well over a year.
Since the issues became clear and stark over the last several grands prix, the team has been feverishly retracing its development steps to identify where it all went wrong.
"We’ve traced the development history back and it turned out that the first mistake we made was with a floor upgrade in 2023 in Barcelona," team boss Horner is quoted by Auto Motor und Sport.
"That was also the grand prix from which Checo (Perez) started having problems with the car. We just didn’t take it so seriously because Max (Verstappen) kept winning," he added.
And team advisor Dr Helmut Marko was also quoted as revealing: "We took a really wrong turn this year in Imola."
At Baku last weekend, Red Bull unveiled two new floor specifications aimed at fixing some of the now-identified issues causing poor handling and difficulty in setting up the car.
"I think this was a step forward, yes," said Verstappen, who still struggled in Azerbaijan but attributed that to a post-qualifying setup mistake.
McLaren raced 20 points ahead of Red Bull in the constructors’ standings on Sunday, prompting Marko to admit that catching back up again is unlikely.
Verstappen, though, is sounding more positive. "I’m sure we can do better," he said. "The fight is not over yet.
"We didn’t win the race, but we were in the fight with Checo. From now on, we can be in the fight for victories all the time if we keep improving the car step by step, especially after what we discovered in Monza."