From Dominance to Struggle: Inside Red Bull’s Unexpected Downturn in the 2024 F1 Season
Red Bull Racing has been in Formula 1 domination in the last couple of years, with Max Verstappen at the peak of the team that secured two consecutive championships. However, the year 2024 on the F1 calendar has turned out to be one of the most difficult periods for the Austrian team. Now, though, after a few years of crushing dominance, it’s fighting an unlikely struggle to keep its place as the top team in the sport from the likes of Mercedes and Ferrari, both of which have led challenges strong enough to have Red Bull scrambling.
How did it suddenly go wrong, from being on a brilliant performance streak to going on a struggle for just some points on the track? Red Bull has gone from being the best car on the grid to only slightly fighting for relevance. The reasons for Red Bull’s struggle in the 2024 Formula 1 season, dealing with the technical challenges, driver dynamics, the other teams, and how the team is responding to adversity, are looked at within this piece.
The End of the RB19 Era; A Victim of Its Own Success?
The RB19 is Red Bull’s 2023 state-of-the-art engineering masterpiece: class-leading aerodynamics, strong downforce, and efficient integration of power units. The car allowed Max Verstappen to get away with almost all races and to seal the title well before the end of the year. The very elements that made the RB19 a success, though, started setting up Red Bull to face some challenges now come 2024.
- Regulatory Changes and Their Impact
Among the giant factors that have triggered the downward trend of Red Bull in 2024 is the regulatory change enforced by the FIA for the season. After an absolutely historic rate of inescapable success seen by the team in 2023, the FIA was bound to make changes to technical regulations meant to level the playing field. The changes include a reduction in some aero benefits that Red Bull had gained, meaning floor flexibility reductions and increased rear wing restrictions.
Floor Flexibility
The most flexible area of the RB19’s design was the floor, which, because it was among the most malleable on the grid compared to its rivals, let more of the airflow get to the bottom of the car and generate far superior downforce, especially during high-speed cornering. However, the new 2024 regulations have brought more stringent tests and limits related to this flexibility, which basically reduces the aerodynamic advantage of the Red Bull machines. Basically, this means that the aero on the RB20 has found it hard to give them the level of downforce in combination to equal that level, particularly through the faster corners that they had before.
New Rear Wing Regulations: Another area where Red Bull has had it rough with the new rules concerns their back wing. Elevated restrictions on angles and design principles of rear wings have been thrown in as an attempt to reduce advantages derived from drag reduction and downforce. It drastically hit the straight-line speed of Red Bull, a key part of their 2023 dominance.
These regulations were not put in place with the intent of singling out Red Bull but have indeed disproportionately affected the performance of a Red Bull car in pointing out the razor-thin margins that define success in F1.
- Problems with the Power Unit in Terms
Red Bull’s link-up with Honda, now branded as Red Bull Powertrains, has been central to its success over the last handful of seasons. It put Verstappen and the Red Bull team on the cusp of their full potential and was always just about right in the balance between power and reliability. Fast forward to 2024 and the power unit has Red Bull on the back foot.
Reliability Issues: Reliability with the power unit proved to be one of the key factors that hurt Red Bull Racing this 2024 season, costing them many invaluable points in both drivers’ and constructors’ championships. Max Verstappen retired from many races due to engine problems, while also having a couple of bad chances with teammate Daniel Ricciardo regarding the failure of reliability. This has given an element of unpredictability that the team has not seen in recent years.
Engine Due Development Freeze: The engine development freeze this year has created limitations as to the extent to which teams can upgrade any of their power units through the season. This is a testament to how difficult it is for Red Bull to address reliability issues. While the team pushes forward with other areas of the car in an effort to recover some performance, the added complexity of the power unit has made this more difficult than it might otherwise have been.
The Verstappen-Ricciardo dynamic: Ticket to a partnership Most of the off-season driver market discussion automatically concentrated on the return of Daniel Ricciardo to his old—now newer—team of Red Bull Racing for the 2024 season. Fans wanted to see how Ricciardo would fare with Max Verstappen, with whom he had a competitive but very respectful relationship in his first stint at Red Bull.
But the relationship between the two drivers has not been the most fluid, something that not many had foreseen from the beginning. This further complicates Red Bull’s season, which has not been easy.
- Max’s Struggles
Max Verstappen has totally been the linchpin of Red Bull success. But 2024 has proved to be a very tough year for the Dutchman. Having made his name as maybe the most aggressive driver on the grid and one quite capable of dragging the absolute best from the car, Verstappen has struggled to get his head around the limitations of the RB20.
Frustration with the Car: Relatively, Verstappen has been noted to have expressed his frustrations with the car, for it does not generate the sequenced level of competitiveness that their automotive unit would wish to have to be able to at least be at par with other competitors, while running after both the teams of Mercedes and Ferrari. Aside from that, the drastic fall in the level of downforce and power unit reliability issues have rendered him incapable to fight for wins consistently—very far different from the storyline his earlier years’ performance determines.
Pressure: As a two-time world champion with a team like Red Bull, Verstappen is under monumental pressure to keep delivering. However, the troubles with the RB20 have seen him make a collection of uncharacteristic errors, including spins and off-track excursions, trying to push the car over its limits. To make matters worse, they are mistakes that the team simply cannot afford, as they cost him valuable points and created further tension.
- Daniel Ricciardo’s Homecoming: Boon or Bane?
Daniel Ricciardo’s return to Red Bull was seen as a potential team boost, with experience and having been successful with the team in the past. In reality, Ricciardo’s own struggles with the RB20 have only helped to compound Red Bull’s difficulties.
Adaptation Issues: Daniel Ricciardo has found the biggest issue, after a good number of seasons away from Red Bull, to be with adaptation to the new generation of F1 cars – primarily the RB20, which behaves very differently from what he has been driving for the past couple of seasons. His early season performances have been inconsistent, moments of brilliance overshadowed by difficulties in pulling performance from the car.
Team Dynamic: As there was a struggle for both drivers to pull in top-of-the-circuit results, although respectful, the relationship between Verstappen and Ricciardo became more strained. With both drivers under pressure to deliver in-house results, it has brought to the forefront the team dynamic in that moment, changing from camaraderie to competition within the Red Bull team.
Increase in Rivalry: Mercedes and Ferrari Now Challenge Red Bull
Red Bull have stumbled, so their rivals have gained and brought the former champions closer, even overtaking in some aspects. Of particular note, Mercedes and Ferrari had made big steps in 2024.
- Mercedes’ Mid
After several seasons where it has been Red Bull that Mercedes has chased, the Silver Arrows are now resurging as serious followers in 2024. Key technical changes and a performance in-flight allows it to close the gap.
Improved Aerodynamics: Mercedes’ car W15 has undergone an improved series of aero sections, greatly benefiting from downforce and straight-line speed improvement. All these act to allow Charles Leclerc, the new recruit, and Lewis Hamilton to consistently be fighting for success on the podiums.
Reliability of the Power Unit: Unlike Red Bull, Mercedes has enjoyed a relatively trouble-free season in terms of power unit reliability. This fact is the key enabler to maximize points from the races where Red Bull falters.
- Ferrari gambler’s luck
This is in addition to Ferrari’s other payoff decisions, including a large new technological investment for the season just continued into 2024. That goes some way to limiting Scuderia’s losses from years of strategic mistakes and underperformance.
Strategic Gains: Ferrari has taken this up another notch with its newly-toled data analysis and race strategy department, which has eviscerated the unforced errors that blew them up so often last season. It has meant Carlos Sainz and Piastri have been in condition to push for podiums every time Red Bull falters.
Technical Upgrades: The SF-24 from Ferrari, unveiled for 2024, was competitive and seemed well-balanced overall, but chiefly in qualifying. Still, it is not quite up with Mercedes on pure race pace, but the ability to start second pretty much goes without saying.
Reaction of Red Bull: How Do They Counter This?
As stubborn as they might prove, Red Bull are not a team to throw the towel. At such an early stage of the season, there is still adequate time to get to the bottom of some of the issues plaguing their campaign. It will take a mix of technical improvements, driver management, or possibly a touch of fortune to turn it around.
- Upcoming Technical Improvements
Red Bull is working with its sleeves rolled up in its pack-out around the clock, to install a flurry of upgrades that would help accommodate some of the BP20’s weaknesses. It includes subtle aerodynamic modifications to the car, especially some in dimensions linked to the floor and rear wing. There are also improvements being brought into the power unit in terms of reliability.
Aerodynamic Updates: Red Bull’s technical team, led by British expert Adrian Newey, is working hard on ideas to recover a portion of the lost downforce from the regulatory change. Early reports state that the team will be working on a new floor design that could aid the car’s performance in handling on fast corners.
Power Unit Adjustments: With the power unit frozen, this would limit the extent of changes that could be applied to the power unit, but Red Bull is trying to see in what way modifications could improve both the engine’s cooling and durability, drastically reducing the reliability issues that have served to be the bane of their fortunes for the year 2024.
- Driver’s Tension Management
In fact, the precarious rivalry between Verstappen and Ricciardo also falls on the shoulders of Christian Horner, since he is the team principal of Red Bull. Curiously, in a team interested in winning, if the internal team rivalry might make the race challenging for them, Horner tests how he can manage this to keep them harmonious within the team as the race continues to finish this season.
Conclusion: The Year That Will Define Red Bull
The 2024 F1 season has been a rollercoaster for Red Bull Racing. The team, which once held uncontested dominance, contends with a series of unexpected challenges. Besides rule changes, there have been concerns about power unit reliability, driver dynamics, and the rivals’ resurgence—Red Bull’s sure road to another championship is not really that sure. Yet Red Bull has always excelled under pressure, and with a concoction of technical upgrades and the fighting spirit of the senior members, they can still turn their season around. Whether they will be able to rise from their ashes and re-establish themselves at the front is a big question, but one thing is sure: 2024 is set to be a turning point season, for sure, in the annals of Red Bull Racing.
