Red Bull Racing, initially expected to dominate the 2024 F1 season with the super challenger RB20, shockingly stumbled mid-season due to lack of pace. Three-time world champion Max Verstappen, who owned a mass lead in the championship, is now fighting for survival against McLaren’s Lando Norris.
At the recently concluded Dutch Grand Prix, Max Verstappen lost his home race to Lando Norris to come home P2 with a significant gap. Moreover, with McLaren building up on their fastest machinery, F1 pundit circled back Red Bull’s downfall to the internal instability that has been boiling over since the beginning of the year.
F1 Pundit Blames Instability As Cause Of Chaos In Red Bull
Red Bull Racing were humbled by McLaren at the Dutch Grand Prix as Lando Norris won the race, leaving behind a 20-second gap for Max Verstappen to cover. Defending champion and homeboy, Verstappen struggled with the stability of his RB20 as balance issues kept him from challenging Norris. Despite a false start, Lando edged past Max smoothly as the Dutchman had no answers to McLaren’s pace. With that, Verstappen’s lead into the drivers championship is reduced to 70 points, with Norris being an active contender despite having won just 2 races into the season. That speaks volumes of McLaren’s consistency. However, on the flip side, Red Bull is also on the brink of losing the constructors title.
McLaren is breathing down Red Bull’s throat with a mere 30-point trail, and with 9 races still left on the calendar, McLaren is confident of toppling Red Bull. That being said, F1 pundit Marc Priestley decoded the root cause of Red Bull’s downfall and pinned the blame on the internal instability. He believes things have been far from ideal inside Milton Keynes as people have been leaving, moving around constantly. These kinds of moves in the middle of the season, coupled with internal fights between team principals and senior professionals, contribute to an unpleasant environment. Hence, Red Bull Racing hasn’t been able to cope with the political turmoil that broke out following the sexual harassment case against Christian Horner. On top of that, Max Verstappen’s future in RB is also uncertain, with Toto Wolff pursuing him to join Mercedes. All these things only add to the insecure working culture.
Marc Priestley Raises Questions On Red Bull’s Development Plan
Meanwhile, F1 expert Marc Priestley raised significant objections to Red Bull’s development plan following the Dutch Grand Prix. He believes Red Bull are lost and desperately trying to mitigate RB20’s balance issues. The team ran two different set ups for Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez with complete opposite configuration.
“They don’t really know or understand exactly where their performance has gone,” Marc said in his YouTube video. Meanwhile, in the wake of increasing struggles, Helmut Marko confirmed that the team has multiple upgrades in the pipeline to resolve the issue as soon as possible and accordingly regain the lead in the drivers and constructors championship standings.
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