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Red Bull find themselves in unfamiliar territory in the Constructors’ Championship, and Christian Horner knows where it went awry
During the 2023 Formula 1 season, the RB19 was the dominant package on the grid. Red Bull’s challenger last year went into the record books as the most successful car in the sport’s history, as Max Verstappen and Sergio Pérez combined to win 21 of the 22 Grands Prix last year, a new record.
This year, however, is a much different story. Now Team Principal Christian Horner has identified where things went wrong for Red Bull.
On Sunday Oscar Piastri captured the Azerbaijan Grand Prix and that victory, coupled with a fourth-place finish from Lando Norris, propelled McLaren to the top of the F1 Constructors’ Championship standings. It also dropped Red Bull to unfamiliar territory, as they sit second for the first time since early in the 2022 season.
Following the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, Horner identified the 2023 Spanish Grand Prix as the moment things veered off course. Speaking with German outlet Auto Motor und Sport, Horner pointed to an upgraded floor the team brought to Barcelona last season as the moment their development of the RB19 — and this season’s RB20 — went awry.
“We traced the development history back and it turned out that the first mistake we made was with an underbody upgrade in 2023 in Barcelona,” said Horner Sunday.
Comparing data from 2023 and 2024 helps drive this point home. Take the Baku City Circuit, the site of last weekend’s Azerbaijan Grand Prix. In 2023 this race came at the start of the season — ahead of the Spanish Grand Prix — and Pérez won as Red Bull locked out the front row, with Verstappen finishing second.
In the 2023 Azerbaijan Grand Prix, Verstappen’s best lap time was 1:44.232, coming at the end of the race on a set of old hard tires. But on Sunday in Baku Verstappen’s best lap time was 1:46.798, also on an old set of hard tires.
When you compare the two laps, using telemetry data from F1-Tempo, the dominance from the RB19 is staggering. Verstappen’s best lap from 2023 is in white, while his 2024 best is in blue:
While the dominance is not as pronounced when you compare Pérez’s best lap in 2023 to his best lap in 2024, the 2023 effort still comes out ahead. His best lap in 2023 was 1:44.589, on a worn set of hard tires. On Sunday in the Azerbaijan Grand Prix? Pérez’s best lap was timed at 1:47.013, also on worn hard tires, and moments before a crash with Carlos Sainz Jr. knocked both drivers out of the race:
As for why Red Bull did not notice this sooner?
It might come down to Verstappen’s brilliance.
He won the 2023 Spanish Grand Prix going away, finishing over 20 seconds ahead of Lewis Hamilton, and went on to win 14 of the 15 Grands Prix after Barcelona. Meanwhile, Pérez started to see a dip in his performance, and instead of wondering if something was wrong with the car, questions — particularly in the media — focused on whether something was wrong with Pérez.
“[The 2023 Spanish Grand Prix] was also the Grand Prix from which Checo started having problems with the car,” said Horner on Sunday. “We just didn’t take it so seriously because Max kept winning.”
Now, Red Bull has an answer. But how quickly they can deliver that answer is a separate question, and it might not come until Austin in October at the United States Grand Prix. In comments to the media following Sunday’s race Marko, while issuing a dire warning about Red Bull’s chances in the Constructors’ Championship, pointed to Austin as the moment that could change things.
“Max couldn’t even hook it up [in Baku]. The tires failed and the temperatures of the brakes went up. The car has potential, but the setup is still very sensitive,” said Marko. “The progress will not be seen in Singapore – we’ll just have to see how we get through that race, but we really need to do better from Austin, otherwise the Drivers’ Championship will also be in jeopardy.”
Red Bull has one more race until then, this weekend’s Singapore Grand Prix.
The one race Verstappen did not win after Barcelona last season.
