Red Bull in crisis: 'Very difficult to understand where everything went wrong'
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- Ludo van Denderen
When a journalist at the very end of the media session at the blood-hot and crowded Red Bull Energy Station asked Max Verstappen if he was worried about McLaren becoming the big favourite for the world title in 2025, the Red Bull Racing Dutchman could not contain his laughter. "Well," Verstappen then said cynically, "I think we have enough to worry about for this year, and we'll see what happens next year."
Anyone observing Verstappen saw a driver who was sometimes joking, but more often blushingly serious about the reality: Red Bull is not good enough at the moment. Simple as that. Although Verstappen leads the championship by 70 points ahead of Lando Norris ahead of the Italian Grand Prix, the mood of crisis at Red Bull was evident on Thursday.
Verstappen realises things can go wrong quickly
True, on paper, it seems a near-impossible task for the McLaren driver to catch up with Verstappen, but after the race at Zandvoort - where Verstappen finished 22 seconds behind Norris in second place - it seems as if Red Bull has completely lost track in terms of development. And then things can get rapid, Verstappen realised only too well.
As it often happens in top sport: Malaise creates media attention, and so Red Bull's accommodation was packed with journalists. Seated at a table too small for the large turnout, Verstappen was met with a barrage of questions: Do you think the problems have to do with the departure of Adrian Newey? Do you expect a nightmare at the race in Singapore (a circuit that never suits Red Bull well, ed.)?
Or: Do you fear Norris overtaking you during the season? And, an interesting one, whether the current situation is an outgrowth of the internal hassle at Red Bull at the start of this season (with team boss Christian Horner often taking centre stage) - or even now? "I don't know," Verstappen insisted. "I mean, it's very hard to understand where things have gone wrong."
Verstappen knows what he is doing
As often as there were questions, Verstappen's response was short and to the point. Seasoned as he is by now, the three-time world champion is not easily tempted to make statements he does not want to make. Make no mistake, on those rare occasions when the Dutchman does speak out, it is not a slip of the tongue. In that case, there is an intention behind it, such as recently in Hungary, when he wanted to put his team on edge.
Meanwhile, that no longer seems necessary; everyone within Red Bull now seems genuinely aware that prolongation of both world titles is in serious danger. But yes, then the next question: how to do something about it? Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez are reportedly experimenting with (older) parts at Monza, in search as they are of especially the right balance of their RB20. At Monza, Perez and Verstappen would each be driving a different specification floor. Although, when asked, Red Bull let it be known that this always happens and so there is nothing strange about it.
Did departure Newey play a role?
So it became a media conversation in which Verstappen mainly said little, although there was a moment in which he did say a lot. When asked if it was a coincidence that the downward spiral had started simultaneously with the departure of Adrian Newey, the driver responded with: "Normally not. Since it was announced that he was leaving, it's been more difficult. But it shouldn't matter if someone is leaving on the spot that immediately the performance drops because the car has always been the same. Normally not," Verstappen said. GPblog noted that he did not tell Verstappen that there was therefore definitely no correlation, why the Red Bull driver said, "Like I said, normally not. Can't be normally."
This article was written in collaboration with Olly Darcy
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