Red Bull problems: Can Verstappen and co. reverse the downward spiral?

It seems like an eternity ago. In 2023, Red Bull Racing had by far the best car on the grid - perhaps even in the history of Formula 1. Who could have predicted that in the following season little would remain of that enormous dominance that the combination Red Bull and Max Verstappen managed to display? The driver in '24 is still as good as a year ago, the car, however, is a shadow of the racing monster from '23. And that should cause concern, as the competition is getting closer.

Newly drafted RB20 a wrong decision?

Red Bull took the decision after the previous season not to continue the RB19 concept for the RB20. A bold decision, in retrospect it even seems a wrong decision. While teams like Ferrari and McLaren actually looked closely at the RB19's success factors and implemented them on their cars, Red Bull thought it would be wise to start virtually from scratch. Things were still crescendo for the Austrians in the first weeks of the season, but since the competition has been steadily introducing updates, Red Bull has been struggling by the week.

A particularly exasperated Verstappen made no secret about it after qualifying in Monaco: this car is no improvement on the '23 car. Over the winter, Red Bull had hoped to eliminate the RB19's weaknesses, but by now the conclusion may be drawn that it has not succeeded. For now, Verstappen leads the world championship, but with the current problems, it will certainly not be an easy ride towards title prolongation.

Varying problems at Red Bull

A major concern for Red Bull is undoubtedly that in recent weeks it has been different issues each time that make the RB20 not function optimally. Verstappen said of this on Saturday: "Probably in Miami, we didn't get the balance correct, and maybe also with the tyres. Imola, I think we managed to turn it around quite well, but because of all the problems, we were probably not on top of the tyres, the hard tyre. But overall, the performance was quite okay. But I knew that this was going to be one of our most difficult weekends, and for sure showed that as well, with naturally everyone catching up as well. I'm just aware that we are not perfect and we need to work. We need to really understand our limitations more and try to work on that."

The RB20 struggles a lot on circuits with bumps and high kerbs. Usually, these are the street circuits. The bad news for Red Bull: there are several more of these to come. The Grand Prix in Canada is also likely to be a challenge for Verstappen and co, as are the races in Azerbaijan, Las Vegas and Singapore, but the road surface is certainly not in the Bulls' favour in Brazil either. With disappointing results at these tracks, a championship lead is easily squandered.

Stuck between McLaren and Ferrari

"Spain has no bumps, so that's probably better for us," Verstappen said. "But there are some tracks, of course, where there are bumps, so you have to ride kerbs. It's definitely a few tracks on the calendar that are not ideal for us, but probably there are also some races that will suit our car probably again more. But we know where we have to work on. There's one clear direction where I think we're still lacking quite a bit of performance. So already, if we can fix that, our car will be better in general on every single track."

By the way, Red Bull do have one small piece of luck. It is not one and the same team or driver who is constantly the main competitor. Sometimes it is a McLaren, other times - as in Monaco - Charles Leclerc's Ferrari. As long as the chasers keep snatching points from each other, it is to Verstappen's advantage. So the championship currently wide open?

"I don't even think about that. It's so long, so many things that can happen. One bad race won't define the championship, but I know that to win a title, you need to be consistent, and that's what we have to try and be," Verstappen said.