Last Updated on October 16 2024, 11:29 am

Red Bull Racing have a new “magic floor” they are bringing to the USGP in Austin. The world champions are seeking to overturn the obvious car advantage which has seen McLaren reel in Red Bull and now the papaya liveried team leads by forty one points.

Yet Red Bull are facing a double dilemma. Of course the car is not working well given Max Verstappen’s eight race wins drought but even if Red Bull can fix the RB20, the question is whether Perez contribute enough to challenge the McLaren pairing.

“I think for all teams, Austin will be a natural time of the year to bring some new parts. We have something important, but I think Ferrari, Mercedes, and McLaren will also have updates,” said Red Bull team boss Christian Horner.

 

 

 

Red Bull upgrade in COTA

“The whole team worked hard to understand the problems and solve them and, if everything goes well, to remedy the situation already from Austin.”

The revised Red Bull package includes what Guenther Steiner describes as a “magic floor” as the team attempt to learn from the disastrous floor they took to Hungary which unsettled the balance of the RB20.

With the teams last racing in Singapore four weeks ago, there has been talk that this break will be what Red Bull needs to make a last minute dash for the line. The ex-Haas F1 boss doesn’t believe this is the case given the lead times for design and manufacturing.

“I don’t think there is because everything is planned beforehand,” Steiner told the Red Flags podcast. “I don’t think you have any advantage of that, because what is coming for Austin that is already developed.

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Perez ‘the worst’ number 2

“I mean, obviously you can prepare yourself better, but they are anyway prepared very good. If you have a weaker team, I don’t think the preparation level will be any different.

“So I think that the big question is how big is this upgrade? This apparent magic floor which is coming to Austin, is it going to help them to catch up again to McLaren?”

Whilst Red Bull’s immediate focus includes improving the platform of the RB20, yet the team’s real problem stems from their driver lineup. Sergio Perez has scored just 144 points this season and he is the worst placed driver in eighth amongst the teams genuinely contending for race wins.

Perez is in fact the only driver from Red Bull, Ferrari, McLaren and Mercedes who has failed to win a race this season. Expectations were high that he was to be replaced by Red Bull during this year’s summer break, but Christian Horner came out and defended the decision to retain the Mexican arguing the next four venues were amongst the best of his circuits on the F1 calendar.

Lawson reveals juicy details of Ricciardo exit

 

 

 

Sergio fails but Ricciardo leaves

On reflection Horner’s hopes were dashed terribly. Sergio scored from Zandvoort to Singapore just fifteen points and his penultimate lap crash in Baku whilst battling for third with Carlos Sainz proved disastrous for the Mexican and the Red Bull team.

Yet Red Bull decided it was Ricciardo who would be retired during the latest autumn break in racing and he will be replaced by the promising Liam Lawson who as Dr. Marko stated “will be evaluated” alongside Yuki Tsunoda with the Japanese driver now the benchmark of who will be alongside Max next year.

Even Christian Horner appears to now accept change is required despite Checo being given a contract for next year early in June this season. With the teams receiving around $9m extra for each place in the constructors’ title race, the Perez problem is becoming critical for RBR.

 “We desperately need answers,” Horner said of his driver situation to Motorsport.com. “When you look at our opponents, Ferrari will be strong next year, with [Lewis] Hamilton and [Charles] Leclerc. Plus McLaren with [Lando] Norris and [Oscar] Piastri is a strong line-up.

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Horner on next year driver lineup

“We need to make sure that with both of our drivers, that there’s not a big gap between them because you can’t afford to have that.”

At present the gap between Perez and Verstappen is the largest amongst the teams capable of winning Grand Prix. Further, this is not the only time Sergio has been given a ‘last chance saloon’ opportunity.

Ex-F1 driver and Sky F1 pundit, Anthony Davidson has a theory about the decline of Daniel Ricciardo and his analysis could well be levelled at Sergio Perez too. 

“I think that the thing for Ricciardo is that he has driven in Formula 1 for a long time. He’s seen the cars evolve, he’s seen them change into the cars that they are today, which don’t have the same level of grip and a very different way you have to drive them compared to the older cars,” he said when speaking on the Sky F1 podcast.

“And you hang on to that as a driver. You always hang on to the best car you’ve ever driven. And in a way, Formula 1 in general spoils you as a driver.”

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Marko says Tsunoda could “drive alongside Max.”

Similar suggestions had been made about Lewis Hamilton until he collected two race wins before this year’s summer break. Perez too seems to have lost his ‘magic power’ of being a tyre whisperer since the introduction of the ground effect cars in 2022 something he was famed for during his spell with Force India/Racing Point.

Interestingly, it appears Yuki Tsunoda is finally in with a shot of the drive alongside Max. The Japanese driver now in his fourth F1 season appears to have conquered his demons and the red mist which regularly descended into the V-CARB cockpit.

Last week Dr. Marko told F1-Insider.com the driver pairings for both Red Bull owned teams for 2025 is not yet set in stone. “Tsunoda is a candidate to drive alongside Max in 2025,” said the Red Bull consultant.

“The remaining races this season will decide what our driver pairings will look like next year.”

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Red Bull driver pairings never equal

Since becoming an established F1 team, Red Bull have rarely had a pair of drivers in their car which are evenly matched. Mark Webber looked briefly as though he might challenge Sebastian Vettel, but history shows it was the German who claimed four consecutive driver titles while they were paired together.

Ricciardo then came in and challenged Vettel’s dominance, but by then it was Mercedes who had stolen a march on the field with their new V6 turbo hybrid power unit.

Again when Max stepped up to join Ricciardo, the pair were evenly matched until the Aussie decided it was time for pastures new and left his Red Bull home for the Renault works team.

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“Haas F1 FOR SALE

The Haas team has always been something of an oddity in Formula One. It was conceived by Gunther Steiner who believed he could create an F1 team which assembles a car which has been developed and produced by outsourced partners.

Dellara were commissioned to design the chassis and aero parts, while Ferrari delivered the power unit and all the associated components allowed under the FIA’s ‘listed parts’ regulations.

The concept was to provide a low cost entry into Formula One without the huge investment required by kitting out a factory to deliver an F1 car start to finish… READ MORE