Last Updated on May 29 2024, 9:42 am

The fast paced world of Formula One like the ‘Big Apple’, never sleeps. Any team that wants to be “King of the hill…. top of the heap” lives the relentless life of pressing forward testing daily new ideas of how to make their car faster. Yet even the best equipped and disciplined F1 squad at times gets it wrong, runs out of road and simply cannot always be better than the competition.

The 2023 season saw Red Bull field the most successful car in the entire history of Formula One. The RB19 won more races in a single season than any previous creation, even from the genius minds of Colin Chapman or Gordon Murray. Of course last year was the joint longest F1 season ever with 22 races being held although torrential rain in Italy forced the cancelation of the Emilia-Romagne Grand Prix.

 

 

 

RB20 now beatable

Even by the end of the season the RB19 was still way ahead of the competition and in the final race in the desert of Abu Dhabi, Max brought it home at the chequered flag with almost 20 seconds to spare. Historically a Formula One team with a dominant car would almost certainly tweak its design over the winter knowing they had enough in hand to come back again the following year still ahead of the rest of the field.

Yet the design team in Milton Keynes, led by Pierre Wache and with input from Adrian Newey, took the decision to go for a more dramatic evolution of their all conquering RB19. The new car even mimicked aspects of the failed Mercedes W13’s radical concepts and Red Bull had the air of ‘taking the Michael’ out of their fiercest rivals as they appeared to be trying to prove the concept could in the right engineering hands be successful.

Following the opening two rounds of the 2024 season the universal opinion of the paddock commentators was that Red Bull and Max Verstappen could easily seal this year’s championship titles before the end of the European season in September. The closest finisher in both Bahrain and Jeddah to the reigning world champion was a Ferrari but the gap was 25 and 18 seconds respectively.

Even Sergio Perez seemed to have raised his game delivering 1-2’s for Red Bull in the opening two rounds of the season. For Max and the world champion team, all seemed set fair for another season of dominance and record breaking, but behind the scenes in Milton Keynes – all was not well.

Wolff rebukes Hamilton’s “favouritism” accusations

 

 

 

Jos Verstappen blames Horner

Team boss Christian Horner had been accused of “controlling behaviour” towards a female employee and journeyman F1 driver Jos Verstappen appeared determined to take him down. He claimed the team was on the verge of “exploding” and called for Horner to be relieved of his duties as team principal.

Son of Jos, Max Verstappen was dragged into the matter and appeared to suggest he may not see out his contract with the team until 2028. Then came the announcement that Adrian Newey was calling time on his 19 year tenure with the Red Bull outfit with many speculating it was because he was disgusted with the manner in which Christian Horner had handled the scandal. 

Now with one third of the season complete, Red Bull after seven races stand 24 points ahead of their closest rivals Ferrari and Max Verstappen’s nearest challenger, Charles Leclerc, sits 31 points behind the current world champion. While this may look a comfortable lead for both the team and Max, compared to their scores after seven rounds last season, both title races look to be much closer.

The Spanish Grand Prix was round seven in 2023 and as the chequered flag fell, Red Bull at the circuit de Catalunya Red Bull had a massive 135 point gap to second place Mercedes and Verstappen was 71 points clear of his closest non-Red Bull rival which was Fernando Alonso.

Newey suspension design now the root of Red Bull’s problems

 

 

 

Brundle blames “internal events”

This year there have been four different race winners in seven rounds and the latest outing in Monaco saw Red Bull struggle more than ever since the 2022 huge regulation change. The radical new RB20 looked out of sorts in even the fast hands of Max Verstappen and the best the current world champion could offer was to qualify in P6 and finish the race where he started.

While some believe Monaco and Singapore to be an outlier for Red Bull, Sky F1 commentator Martin Brundle suggests maybe more is going on behind the scenes at Red Bull than we are led to believe. Writing in his weekly column for the British broadcaster promotes the idea that the “internal events” within the team are now having a negative effect on their results.

However, Brundle writes: “Ferrari and McLaren are on a fine run, both teams and driver pairings looking very cohesive, focused, and well structured.

“This means that Red Bull are very much looking in their rear mirrors in both the drivers’ and constructors’ Championships and it appears to be game-on with so many races to come.

“I personally have no doubt the internal events at Red Bull have detracted from their recent performances, and they’ll be desperately keen to resume normal service in Montreal next time out,” claims the ex-F1 driver and team mate of Michael Schumacher.

Understated Vasseur now boldly claims champions battle is ‘now on’

 

 

 

Monaco: “Sadly a non-event of a race”

Yet the “internal events” are set to drag on for most of this season so presumably the negative impact on Red Bull racing is set continue seeing them in decline from their all conquering 2023 season.

Despite being pleased for Charles Leclerc claiming his maiden win at his home Grand Prix in Monaco, Brundle was unhappy with how the Grand Prix played out following a red flag on lap one following a huge crash involving Sergio Peres and both Haas F1 cars.

As per the regulations, during the delay for barrier repair, the teams all switched the tyres on their cars fulfilling the regulation which states two separate compounds must be used during a Grand Prix. Yet with track position crucial in Monaco, following the restart the leaders set about trundling around some four seconds slower than was possible in an effort to make their tyres survive the remaining 77 laps.

While Leclerc delivered a “perfect performance” together with a “fairy tale ending” Brundle lamented what he described as “sadly a non-event of a race.” He added: “At the best of times, this l[circuit] layout needs an awkwardly timed safety car or red flag, or rain. Better still, all three.

Russell ground breaking idea for Monaco attracts attention

 

 

 

Special rules required for Monaco

“The worst-case scenario is a first-lap red flag on a day when two of the three tyre compounds can be massaged into completing the entire 78-lap race distance, thereby making best use of the regulations which permit a tyre change during the red flag stoppage, and so enabling everyone to also tick the box for using two different tyre compounds during a dry race. And that’s exactly what happened.

“This created a scenario where Ferrari, with Leclerc out front and Carlos Sainz in third, basically measured their pace to George Russell in fifth place, a driver they would never again see in their mirrors after a few laps, to avoid a pit stop window opportunity opening up for the McLaren of Lando Norris in fourth.

“So, on the second standing start after the red flag, the top ten finished in exactly the same order for the first time in F1 history.”

Suggestions have been pouring in on how to prevent this from ever happening again. TJ13 has promoted a simple solution for several years which retains the rule allowing teams to switch tyres under a red flag for safety purposes, but also forces them to do one more stop after that to create interesting strategy opportunities. Monaco already has special rules allowing for a race length of 260km rather than the standard 300km everywhere else.

Hamilton silly propaganda called out by fellow racer

 

 

 

Verstappen slams Red Bull: “Era of dominance gone

Jos Verstappen, the father of reigning Formula One champion Max Verstappen, has publicly criticised Red Bull and called for the team to refocus on racing. This comes amid growing concerns that Red Bull’s era of dominance in F1 may be waning, as evidenced by recent performances.

Red Bull’s dominance of Formula One has been unquestioned in recent years. With back-to-back Drivers’ and Constructors’ Championships in 2022 and 2023, the team seemed invincible. However, recent events suggest that their grip on the sport may be loosening. Last weekend’s Monaco Grand Prix, a race traditionally known for its unpredictability and the importance of qualifying, revealed potential cracks in Red Bull’s once impregnable armour… READ MORE