Insider: Red Bull is completely helpless

From benchmark to bewildered: Red Bull’s season spirals – At the start of the 2025 Formula One season, few could have imagined Red Bull Racing in such disarray. The team that dominated the sport in recent years, led by world champion Max Verstappen, now finds itself struggling both on and off the track. Their hopes of challenging for another title have all but evaporated, leaving the Milton Keynes outfit facing uncomfortable questions about its direction and leadership.

The dismissal of long-serving team principal Christian Horner was supposed to mark a fresh chapter. New leadership, paired with upgrades for the RB21, was billed as the reset button Red Bull needed to reignite their championship charge. Yet those bold plans have not materialised into results. Instead, the team has drifted further from the front, watching rivals McLaren and Ferrari fight for glory while they languish in fourth in the Constructors’ standings.

Max Verstappen trails McLaren’s Lando Norris by 70 points in the Drivers’ Championship, while Oscar Piastri sits an even greater 104 points ahead. Worse still, Piastri alone has collected 309 points, nearly 100 more than the combined haul of Verstappen and Tsunoda who have managed just 214 between them. For a team accustomed to setting the pace, such numbers are not merely disappointing, they are alarming.

 

Red Bull’s technical crisis

According to a report from Dutch newspaper De Limburger, citing an insider within the team, the technical department has been unable to find solutions to the RB21’s persistent problems. Attempts to correct balance issues on Verstappen’s car have so far proven fruitless. Despite repeated upgrades and adjustments, the car’s behaviour on track continues to defy expectations and defy fixes.

Particularly concerning is the discrepancy between wind tunnel data and real-world performance. Such mismatches are not unheard of in Formula One, but Red Bull’s predicament is made more embarrassing by the success of their own junior team. The Racing Bulls, who share the same wind tunnel facility, appear to have no such issues.

Their VCARB02 has been steadily improving, suggesting that the problem lies not in the facility itself but in how Red Bull’s senior team interprets and applies the data.

This has raised eyebrows across the paddock. How can the squad with the larger budget, deeper resources, and habit of poaching top engineers from their junior team, be outperformed by the so-called “B team”? It is a question that has gone unanswered, leaving many to wonder whether something more fundamental is awry within Red Bull Racing.

 

Alonso stirs the pot

Adding fuel to the fire, Fernando Alonso cheekily suggested at Zandvoort that Verstappen would be a title contender if he were driving the Racing Bulls’ VCARB02 instead of his struggling RB21.

While the Spaniard framed the remark as a joke, it hit uncomfortably close to home for Red Bull’s leadership. After all, with both teams drawing from the same technical base, it is damning that the junior operation looks to be producing the sharper machine.

Alonso’s words captured a growing sentiment in the paddock—that Red Bull’s once-feared dominance has not only ended, but reversed, leaving them vulnerable to being overshadowed by their own affiliates. If the VCARB02 is genuinely at or above the level of the RB21, then Red Bull’s hierarchy faces a reckoning unlike any they have encountered before.

 

A team at odds with itself

The loss of Christian Horner has undoubtedly destabilised the organisation. His ability to marshal the political and technical elements of the team, whatever his controversies, was a defining factor in Red Bull’s success. Without him, there appears to be confusion in the corridors of Milton Keynes, where direction and unity are now in short supply.

The shift in leadership was meant to bring fresh energy, but insiders whisper of disorganisation and indecision. Engineers who once prided themselves on innovative solutions now find themselves recycling failed concepts, with morale reportedly falling as each race weekend delivers fresh disappointment. The combination of a car that resists fixes and a leadership vacuum is toxic, and it shows in the team’s body language on the pit wall and in the paddock.

 

From benchmark to follower

For years, Red Bull was the team setting benchmarks. Rivals measured themselves against the all-conquering RB18 and RB19, machines that carried Verstappen to comfortable titles. Now, however, they are chasing, their once-feared aura eroded. Each weekend, the gap to McLaren underlines just how far they have fallen, and each attempt at improvement seems to make little difference.

The irony is that Red Bull’s closest technical mirror, their junior team, has exposed just how far they have strayed. If the Racing Bulls can take the same data and create a competitive car, then Red Bull Racing’s issues cannot be brushed off as bad luck. Something fundamental in their design philosophy has gone wrong, and unless it is identified quickly, the decline could extend well beyond this season.

 

The satire Red Bull wished we would not notice

Of course, Formula One is rarely short on irony. The team that once joked about others copying their innovations now finds itself peeking enviously at its own B team. Verstappen, a driver who once lapped the field, now spends his weekends in a car that seems allergic to front-running pace. For years, Red Bull spoke of building dynasties, but dynasties rarely collapse because of rivals—they crumble from within.

The jury may find it amusing that the biggest threat to Red Bull’s supremacy has not been McLaren, Ferrari, or Mercedes, but the Racing Bulls across the paddock, armed with the same tools but fewer people.

 

Where do Red Bull go from here?

There is no simple solution. Fixing a Formula One car mid-season is a task of monumental difficulty, particularly when the root cause appears so entrenched. The leadership vacuum does not help, nor does the increasing pressure from Verstappen, who has grown visibly frustrated in his post-race interviews. Even the ever-composed Perez cannot mask the sense of inevitability that Red Bull’s campaign has slipped away.

Looking further ahead, the bigger concern may be cultural. Once the aura of invincibility fades, it is hard to restore. Engineers who once clamoured to join Red Bull may now look elsewhere. The best talent may not be convinced by a team unable to solve its own problems. And as other teams attract new sponsors and investment, Red Bull could face a slow erosion of the advantages it once took for granted.

What is clear is that Red Bull’s golden age is over, at least for now. The statistics, the performances, and the whispers all tell the same story. Once the benchmark, they now play the role of follower, struggling even to match the performance of their own junior squad. For a team that once epitomised control, the current chaos could not be more stark.

Is this simply a rough patch that Red Bull will overcome, or the beginning of a longer decline? Could Verstappen truly be a title contender in a Racing Bulls car, and what does that say about the RB21’s failings? Let us know in the comments.