Red Bull started the 2024 season on a high by replicating the success of the 2023 season. However, after the first quarter of the season, the Milton Keynes outfit found serious competition from McLaren and soon Ferrari and Mercedes caught up as well. As Red Bull is falling down the pecking order, Christian Horner has claimed that Adrian Newey’s departure had nothing to do with it.
Newey announced his exit from Red Bull right before the Miami GP. Coincidentally, Miami was the first race where another car [McLaren] beat Red Bull on merit. Questions were raised if Newey’s departure would lead to Red Bull’s downfall.
When asked if Newey’s departure had anything to do with Red Bull’s negative trajectory, Horner said as per Motorsport, “The first seven or eight races we were very strong and then there was a dynamic change. Around Miami, it was as if a switch had been flipped. That had nothing to do with Adrian Newey announcing his departure at that time.”
Christian Horner: “It is a season in two halves. The first seven or eight races we were very strong and then there was a dynamic change. Around Miami it was as if a switch had been flipped. That had nothing to do with Adrian Newey announcing his departure at that time.”
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After Miami, the team went on to win a few races in subsequent weekends. However, the performance massively fell off again with Max Verstappen struggling to put the car anywhere near the front of the grid.
Sergio Perez had already been struggling and now even the Dutchman faced similar issues. Reports claimed that Newey wasn’t happy with a few characteristics of the RB20 yet Horner went ahead and gave the green light to Pierre Wache.
Horner explained how it was an issue with the imbalance of the car in Miami. The new upgrades put on the RB20 in Hungary have only worsened the car’s issues.
Red Bull hopes to put the imbalance issues to bed at the US GP
Things went from bad to worse in a short period for Red Bull after the Miami GP. The Spanish GP was the last race won by Verstappen and Red Bull and the Milton Keynes outfit has been winless for right races since.
Verstappen slammed the team as the Hungary upgrade made the car worse. The team traced the issues back to an underfloor upgrade brought to the car at the 2023 Spanish GP. Yet, they ignored Perez’s feedback since Verstappen was doing well.
Red Bull is going to bring a huge upgrade to the US GP and is hopeful that it’ll get rid of the imbalance issues to a huge extent. If they’re able to iron those issues out, the fight for the championship will become very interesting as McLaren is currently running away with it.
