Red Bull has detailed the next steps it must take to turn its troubled RB21 machine into an F1 championship contender.

Four-time F1 champion Max Verstappen delivered a performance across the Japanese Grand Prix weekend that was above and beyond the performance of the car, claiming his 64th F1 victory from an astonishing pole position that was against the odds.

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner conceded after that qualifying lap that the mechanics had “turned the car upside down” to find performance following Friday practice when it appeared Verstappen was comfortably off the pace.

There remain issues with the car, however, the team has been attempting to fix as far back as the middle of last year, when an alarming slump in form put Verstappen’s title defence at risk. He eventually clinched the championship, despite only winning two races from the final 14 after winning seven of the first 10. 

Missing from the team this year is Adrian Newey, who left his role as chief technical officer for a position at Aston Martin.

Chief engineer Paul Monaghan feels the team is not that far behind the leading cars, with clear targets to be met to transform the troubled car.

“Not necessarily,” Monaghan told media, including RacingNews365, when asked about an apparent conflict between the goals of making the car more drivable but driver feedback being the opposite. 

“How twitchy your car is, or how nervous your car is, perhaps you will say it is relative. I bet there are 18 other cars in this pit lane that all of us would find really quite difficult to drive. 

“So you are trying to get your car as balanced as you can and we’re what, one, two-tenths off the quickest car in the pit lane. 

“Last year’s [car] had some flaws, and we’ve addressed those quite significantly without giving away much, in my opinion. Now we’ve got to try and get this one to be a little better. 

“If we’re two-tenths off on a five-and-a-half kilometre circuit with 20-something corners, if we find a few hundredths in each corner, all of a sudden, we’re on the pace of the current lead car.

“But they’re all quite difficult. Now we’ve just got to try and get a little bit more speed out of this one, try and improve its stability to the point that the drivers find it easier to drive.

“If we can do that, and put some lap time into it, all will be well and good. We’ll be in the hunt.”