The Truth Behind The Red Bull Downfall
What is responsible for the loss in performance for Red Bull in the latter part of the 2024 world championship? If you are anything like me, that question has been driving you crazy for the last few months. Horner? McLaren? Newey? It is down to a multitude of factors that, thankfully, I will be diving into throughout this blog post.
Firstly, factors out of their hands. There is no doubt that McLaren, Mercedes, Ferrari and perhaps even Aston Martin have been performing at a higher standard than last season. Lando Norris is in a rocket ship and has managed to accumulate a total of 202 points more than this time last season.
The same goes for Oscar Piastri, Lewis Hamilton and several other drivers, who are performing better than they did in 2023. Therefore, the competition is obviously harder for Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez, who dominated over the course of the 2023 world championship: winning 23 out of 24 races.
Obviously, there is another factor that feels like an elephant in the room. Christian Horner. Having been accused of misconduct through explicit messages by a female employee, Red Bull have received negative media attention. This obviously can not be good for morale, especially if there is tension between the staff members. There could be a possibility that this incident may have been a potential factor leading towards the departure of multiple key team members such as CTO, Adrian Newey and sporting director, Jonathan Wheatley. However, it is more likely that this is related to the change in the leadership dynamic following the death of Dietrich Mateschitz in 2022.
It seems to be a possibility that Red Bull are concerned with Max Verstappen's online activity, which they expressed through Helmut Marko's statement: “Of course it didn’t take long for criticism to arise - no wonder, given that he [Verstappen] spends half the night playing sim racing." This could be a factor as to why Max is significantly slower this season, however, he may be following a UK schedule despite being abroad. This would mean that his live streaming may not be interfering with his sleep schedule. This makes sense because despite being up until 3am on Saturday night, he still won the Imola Grand Prix 2024.
When considering this debate, it is important not to ignore the other half of Red Bull Racing: Sergio Perez. There is no question that Checo's race results have been sub-par. He has been outscored by Max Verstappen in all but one race so far this season, in which he did not finish due to a brake issue. On top of this, Perez has cost the team approximately $4.5 million this season so far, with a substantial amount of races left to go. His poor performance is a key factor as to why Red Bull have been overtaken in the constructors championship. It appears as if this season, both drivers are going to have to perform to catch McLaren and avoid being overtaken by the likes of Mercedes and Ferrari.
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