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Did Red Bull make a step forwards in Azerbaijan Grand Prix qualifying?
Max Verstappen ended Saturday in Baku confident that the RB20 was no longer a "monster", but the Formula 1 championship leader said a set-up change had hampered his efforts to make the top five.
Having topped Q2, Verstappen fell back to sixth in Q3 - qualifying two tenths behind team-mate Sergio Perez.
Verstappen's "monster" comment came at Monza two weeks ago, where he expressed his bafflement at the car's lack of driveablility in qualifying, said after that race that there was a "massive balance problem", and even conceded that vying for both titles might be out of the question.
Red Bull has brought a subtle floor change to Baku this weekend to try to remedy the issues that involve the RB20 swinging between understeer and oversteer throughout a lap, leading to a lack of confidence from Verstappen and Perez.
That, and more likely a tranche of set-up changes helped by the team's continued understanding of the car's handling problems, led Verstpapen to say that Red Bull had "improved the car" - specifically the "disconnect" between the front and rear, instead offering a more stable and predictable platform.
But he said Red Bull might have tipped the car into another uncooperative window with set-up changes it made between FP3 and qualifying.
"As soon as I went out in Q1, on the first lap, I felt the car took a step back," he said. "We made some changes and the car became incredibly unpredictable and difficult, just because of the changes that we made.
"I'm a bit disappointed with that because you always try to optimise things and make it better and we just tipped it over the edge. Shame that that happened into qualifying."
Verstappen did, however, concede that he lost time with a mistake on his first run of Q3.
"I just lost it into the last corner, otherwise I'd be fighting for second or third. [But] we still had a run, you can still improve your laptime."
He said the car was difficult to drive, reiterating the lack of confidence he and Perez have had at the wheel.
"The car just started jumping around a lot," explained Verstappen. "So you lose contact patch with the Tarmac."
Both Perez, who ended his team-mate's 33-race-long streak of qualifying ahead, and Verstappen have long recognised the creeping - and now very evident - balance problems with the RB20, although only in the second half of 2024 has Verstappen struggled with those in the same vein as his team-mate.
Like Verstappen, Perez said that improvements to the Red Bull instilled some confidence in Baku.
"If I had arrived here with the car that I had for the entire season, I would have had a similar result [to the rest of the season]," said Perez. "I was able to have more confidence around the streets. And yeah, it did help.
"The team has done a tremendous job on bringing the upgrades we have to correct the issues we've been having. We just need more in the same direction.
"The team is pushing flat-out.
"We've had a very difficult period in the last few races, but I think we are definitely making progress. I think it's probably the biggest progress we've made with the car since the beginning of the year.
"So hopefully that can translate into race pace as well. We just have to keep on that direction."
The RB20's balance issues are still affecting its drivers but it's clear the team made a step forwards in Azerbaijan. Unfortunately for Verstappen, the team also made a step backwards.
The saving grace for him is that Lando Norris was eliminated in the first part of qualifying and is due to start 17th, giving Verstappen the chance to extend a 62-point advantage in the drivers' championship that has been cut by 16 points over the previous two weekends.
