Red Bull reckons that dialling its car better into just two corners of the Red Bull Ring track holds the key to it properly challenging McLaren in Formula 1's Austrian Grand Prix.
Max Verstappen emerged as McLaren's main threat for victory during Friday practice, but ended up slightly adrift on the long runs and was 0.318 seconds off pacesetter Lando Norris in FP2.
But despite from the outside appearing to face a pretty big deficit to the cars ahead, Verstappen was not downbeat about – and reckoned that things would improve if Red Bull can get rid of some of the understeer that it encountered.
"I think overall, it was quite straightforward," he said. "We didn't have any big, big issues.
"Just like a bit of pace [missing], a bit too much understeer in the car as well short run and long run. So that is something that we have to try and get rid of."
Red Bull believes that the gap to McLaren was exaggerated by its struggling through the plunging Turns 6 and 7 medium speed left handers – whose characteristics perfectly suit McLaren's MCL39.
The squad feels that if it can dial out its weakness here then it could be game on – with an upgraded floor that has appeared this weekend appearing to deliver a small speed boost too.
GPS data comparing the fastest laps of pacesetter Norris and Verstappen has highlighted how costly the Turn 6 and 7 section is.
On the way into Turn 6, Verstappen is around 0.080 seconds slower than Norris.
By the time he comes out of Turn 7, he is 0.26 seconds adrift of the McLaren – with him then losing just another 0.050 seconds over the remainder of the lap.
The form of the Red Bull, and knowing that there is normally an offset of settings on Friday afternoons between the two teams, has left McLaren convinced that Verstappen will be a major threat.
Championship leader Oscar Piastri felt that FP1 pacesetter George Russell did not appear to be a contender after struggling on the long run, but that Red Bull was in the mix.
"I think Max is definitely going to be in there, George. I'm not sure," he said. "I think Mercedes looked very quick in FP1, but yeah, FP2 not quite as strong. So we'll see.
"But it's definitely not just McLaren involved."
Analysing Red Bull's floor upgrade
By Gary Anderson
Red Bull's form on Friday came after it introduced a minor floor upgrade for its home weekend.
The team explained that the new edge wing maintains flow stability and increases load extraction from the floor region, improving aerodynamic performance in an area that is critical to the performance of the diffuser.
You want to get the flow in this area connected up to what is called the 'tyre squirt' - which is the airflow that is displaced when the rear tyre rotates onto the track surface.
Some of this displaced airflow goes around the inside of the rear tyre and this 'tyre squirt' can help pull the airflow over the upper surface (highlighted with the red arrows) or the lower surface (highlighted with the green arrows) of the floor. This will then help reduce the leakage under this floor section.
It also looks like Red Bull has removed, or at least reduced, the small duct which is highlighted with the blue ellipse.
Pulling this airflow over the top of the floor surface or underneath it will end up with a very similar overall downforce level. However the outcome will be fairly different as far as sensitivity is concerned.
The big decision is which direction you prefer, and what car characteristics you want to optimise.
Pulling it over the top will mean the floor will seal better, generating more downforce at slightly higher rear ride heights.
However, pulling it underneath will reduce the on/off effect as the floor gets closer to the ground, but it will be more consistent.
