'This way Red Bull will be third in the World Championship at most'

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Ralf Schumacher sees Red Bull finishing third in the F1 world championship
16 September at 20:00
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  • Corwin Kunst

Red Bull Racing relinquished the lead in the constructors' championship in Baku. McLaren is the new number one and Helmut Marko openly admitted immediately after the race that he believes the World title is out of the picture. According to Ralf Schumacher, Red Bull should even be happy if they finish second in 2024.

The difference between McLaren and Red Bull is now 20 points, while Ferrari only needs to make up 31 points on the Milton Keynes-based team to take over second place. Schumacher still sees that happening in the final seven Grands Prix of the season.

"I think Red Bull will finish at most third in the constructors' standings if things continue like this," is the former Formula 1 driver's prediction in conversation with the German branch of Sky. According to the analyst, the team at Maranello have made great strides with the SF-24 in recent weeks. "Ferrari has a good car. It will be very difficult for Red Bull to hold on to second place."

No podium for Red Bull in Baku

In the streets of Azerbaijan last year, Red Bull picked up a one-two, but this year even a podium was too much to ask. Of course, that also had everything to do with the crash between Sergio Perez and Carlos Sainz. The Mexican appeared to be on his way to a top-three finish, but he collided with Sainz two laps before the finishing flag fell.

Perez attacked number two in the race Charles Leclerc, but lost momentum as a result and saw Sainz pass. The Spaniard took advantage, moved up a place and even thought he could pass to second for a moment. "Sainz gets all overconfident and then wants to attack his own teammate," analysed Schumacher. "He then doesn't know where to go and gets into trouble. Then, for whatever reason, he kind of sidesteps, but Perez doesn't really sidestep either. The result was that they hit each other, misery."

In the end, the race organisers handed out no penalties. George Russell was boosted to third. The Mercedes driver was suddenly allowed to join the podium.