Red Bull in Formula 1: World Champion Max Verstappen hopes for a miracle

The task for Max Verstappen in Singapore was tricky, and his teammate Sergio Perez had just failed. The Formula 1 world champion therefore went about things a little more concentratedly and moved the steering wheel very carefully. He managed the first corner well, but the next turn was not as elegant: his car rolled over. But Verstappen laughed at this driving error, because of course it was not his RB20 that crashed at Marina Bay, but just a child’s toy. The drinks company’s marketing strategists had thought up this slalom in the brightly lit paddock as a warm-up for the night Grand Prix this Sunday. Perhaps even with a deep psychological intention: even if a lot is going wrong right now, it’s not all that bad.

Now, of all times, when McLaren has pushed Red Bull Racing off the top of the constructors’ championship for the first time in 55 races thanks to its currently best racing car and Lando Norris has already cut Verstappen’s lead in the drivers’ championship to 59 points, two street circuits are scheduled within a week. Tracks with slow corners that traditionally neither the champion nor his car like. The defending champion has not been on the podium since mid-June, after winning seven of the first ten races of the season – and everything looked like a continuation of his dominance. But now there is only this unquenched longing.

Of course, a realist like Max Verstappen doesn’t express himself so poetically. To describe the quality of his company car last Sunday in Baku, he used the F-word during the press conference. Just after the International Automobile Federation (FIA) announced that it wanted to stop the drivers from swearing so much. As punishment, the 26-year-old has to do community service. A farce, of course. But it somehow fits in with the current mood.

Since 2021, five key figures have left Red Bull

The Dutchman believes that a small miracle would have to happen for him to win on the Marina Bay Circuit. If his car were competitive, that would be enough for now. Then, in the four-week break between Singapore and Austin, he could aim for a turnaround: with a completely revamped car and an opponent, McLaren, who have just been banned from using their flexible rear wing and are therefore losing top speed.

For this fast-paced engineering sport, in which technology can often be corrected or developed further every two weeks, the analysis takes an unusually long time, especially for the industry leader. Back in May, the driver and the team had already realised that a fault had crept into the system of the RB20, which had been so reliably superior until then. What the wind tunnel promised did not come close to holding up in practice. “It seems we cannot trust our tools,” groaned team boss Christian Horner, “it’s like reading the time on clocks that tick at different times.”

This was discovered on the very weekend that designer Adrian Newey, for whom the nickname “mastermind” is a very apt job description, left Red Bull. The Briton has signed up with Aston Martin, officially because he sees new prospects there as a shareholder. But Newey actually wants nothing more than to build fast cars. The fact that he no longer enjoyed it after almost two decades at Red Bull also says something about the climate in the Anglo-Austrian racing team. Since 2021, five key figures have left Red Bull, most recently sports director Jonathan Wheatley to join the new Audi factory team.

The atmospheric disturbances caused by the power struggles following the death of company founder Dietrich Mateschitz only escalated at the beginning of the year. But they had been simmering for some time and are still doing so after the scandal surrounding team boss Horner, who was accused of abusive behavior by his assistant. The Briton is firmly in the saddle, however, because he has the Thai majority owners of the brand behind him. After much back and forth, Austrian Helmut Marko has extended his consulting contract. Verstappen’s father Jos, on the other hand, regularly lets off steam publicly against Horner when things are not going well in sporting terms – and flirts with an early move for his son to Mercedes. Such unrest is the last thing a racing team needs in a crisis.

With 206 points still to be awarded, Lando Norris has come dangerously close

The unbalanced top car and the tough repair show the complexity of Formula 1. Apparently, even minimal changes in the vehicle setup were enough to make the RB20 swing between heaven and hell. Max Verstappen sometimes speaks of a “monster” that has been bred, sometimes he discredits the performance by calling it a “go-kart”.

It also shows that the ground effect regulations, which will be replaced in 2026, have been exhausted. Red Bull has not gotten that much worse, the others have just caught up a lot. Now the Newey design is suffering from the undesirable characteristics that Mercedes, Ferrari and McLaren have had to deal with in recent years – cars that bounce and show strong fluctuations in shape from track to track. The error in the underbody, which determines the grip of the racing car and thus its speed and balance, apparently already happened in spring 2023. “Taking a wrong turn” is what Formula 1 jargon says when the direction of development is no longer right. The fact that this is only now having such a striking effect also shows the general superiority of the vehicle concept.

“At the moment, it’s out of my hands. The car isn’t giving me a chance. I can only limit the damage, but that’s not getting us anywhere,” complains Verstappen. He is now calling for a faster pace of development over the pit radio. With 206 points still up for grabs, Lando Norris has come dangerously close. The pursuer recently said that his McLaren could fly. In Singapore, the Briton tried to be understated again: “Just as we managed the turnaround, Red Bull can turn everything around again,” said Norris. “They were far superior at the beginning than we are now, and we had more problems then than they do now.” Consolation from the toughest opponent must almost be a mockery for those who are used to success.