If Formula 1 is the ultimate test of precision engineering combined with driver skill, there is no doubt the former has seldom reached such heights as over the past couple of seasons at Red Bull.
Whereas Max Verstappen only won the 2021 championship ahead of Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton in the most controversial circumstances on the season’s final lap, his 2022 and 2023 victories were won at a canter. So far ahead were Red Bull in 2023 that it was almost a case of them and everyone else as Verstappen won 19 out of 22 races.
This year started much the same way, with Verstappen winning five of the first seven races. Thanks to this, he still leads now, but since he took the chequered flag in Spain, six races have passed without a Red Bull win. Mercedes have taken three, including two for Lewis Hamilton, with two for McLaren Mercedes and Ferrari taking the most recent race in Italy.
Such a sea change in fortunes has excited many observers, with Forbes calling the current season the best this century. The article suggested an “implosion” at Red Bull has seen the off-track controversies around Christian Horner feeding into technical problems of a kind that were just not happening last year.
A particularly significant aspect of this downturn may have been the departure of technical director Adrian Newey, still on the payroll but absent from working on the cars since May.
BBC F1 correspondent Andrew Benson noted there is a clear correlation between his departure and declining performance, but said there could be “no clear answer” over whether these are linked. However, he suggested that as Newey is the “greatest designer in DF1 history”, it is unlikely to be coincidental.
If Newey’s departure is the main reason for Red Bull’s decline, they and Vettel might still have enough of a lead to gain the constructors’ and drivers’ championships respectively. But even without making huge technical strides forward themselves, Red Bull’s rivals will have every reason for optimism, not least at Ferrari as Lewis Hamilton prepares to join.