Red Bull is a constant powder keg and tension is palpable in every corner of the team. Barely a week after Verstappen achieved his first victory in the championship, Bahrain has once again set fire to a team that has no pace and seems to have no plan to get back on track.
Verstappen sustains Red Bull
Red Bull’s problems are not new, they have been threatening a team that solidly dominated the grid for a couple of years now, and which has gradually been losing its advantage and falling behind the best on the grid. They have only remained at the top thanks to having the best driver on the grid.
The advantage that Verstappen achieved at the start of the championship in 2024 was already a surprise. An advantage that allowed him to put distance between himself and a McLaren that was slow to realise that he could fight for the Drivers’ World Championship but that went on to overtake the Austrians in the Constructors’ Championship. Ferrari was also superior to Red Bull, highlighting the energy company’s big problem.
But this season, the problems are even more evident, and what’s worse, there is no longer any way to hide it. Once again Verstappen is the one keeping the team afloat, he is only 8 points behind the leader, Lando Norris, but it does not seem possible that he can fight with this car to repeat as world champion.
Red Bull row after the Bahrain Grand Prix
The Bahrain race revealed Red Bull’s tension: as soon as the chequered flag was waved, with no time to think and draw clear conclusions, Helmut Marko, Christian Horner and the two chief engineers of the team met to discuss the problem they had on their hands. It is difficult to know what conclusion they reached, because it does not seem that they are going to solve anything in the short term.
After the meeting, the representative of Max Verstappen could be seen arguing angrily with Helmut Marko. Although the subject of the conversation is unknown, during interviews after the race, Verstappen contradicted Marko about the pace of the race and Red Bull’s problems on the track.
Red Bull’s problems and Verstappen’s departure
Verstappen’s farewell is now more real than ever. The four-time world champion knows that Red Bull has real problems developing the car. Christian Horner said after the race that they have tried everything and are unable to find a solution for the car, that the data they have from their wind tunnel has nothing to do with the race data. Without the correct wind tunnel data, in F1 today you have nothing, and the team boss admitted that until 2027, when the new tunnel is opened, they will have to continue with the current one even if it continues to give erroneous data.
These problems not only jeopardize the current season, they also jeopardize development for the next regulation. If Red Bull has a wind tunnel that produces erroneous data, they will hardly be able to get the car right.
Max Verstappen knows all these problems that Red Bull has first hand, and he is tired of having to be the one to bail out the team. And seeing the future that awaits Red Bull in the coming seasons, it seems that the Dutchman is increasingly clear that his future is far from the team that has made him four times world champion.
Mercedes and Aston Martin are keeping an eye on the Dutch driver, it seems that they now have the most solid projects for the next campaign, and Verstappen does not want to miss the opportunity to add titles to his list of achievements. He wants to be the best driver in history and he knows that he cannot pass up any opportunity to achieve it. And if his destiny were to be Aston Martin, Fernando Alonso would have a problem.