Red Bull’s 2024 title defense has gone from bad to worse in the past six races where they haven’t been able to win a single Grand Prix. According to former F1 driver, Ralf Schumacher, the Austrian team is not likely to be able to solve the issues with the RB20 in the remainder of the season.
Red Bull started the season pretty much how they left 2023 — in a dominant fashion — with Max Verstappen winning five of the first seven races. But the first sign of weakness appeared on a range of circuits like Monaco and Canada that required better riding on kerbs and bumpy track surfaces because of how low the Red Bull car could run to the ground.
However, it was expected that the RB20 would come into its own during the European races of the season, something that has not materialized as the Milton Keynes outfit has experienced even more problems with the car.
As Verstappen has been calling out for quite a few races now, the RB20 seems to have lost the balance between the front and rear end, which introduces massive understeer when the team tries to tackle the balance with the setup. It also greatly affects tire degradation, something that has been a strong suit for Red Bull in the past.
What I’ve noticed is that since the upgrades, Max has been struggling a lot with understeer. Red Bull tried to adjust the car to suit Checo, but now it has turned into a Frankenstein.
The balance of the car has been completely ruined. Now the car is undrivable for both Max and… pic.twitter.com/RDRQpaffSv
— Marc | Formula 1 (@433_marc) August 31, 2024
Per Formule1.nl, Ralf Schumacher told Sky Deutschland that more and more people at the team will start to feel unsatisfied with the car as they will find the problem unfixable.
“The uncertainty is there, more heads will roll because of this uncertainty and many will be dissatisfied. The pressure on the team, including departing staff, is enormous. Formula 1 is too fast for such problems,” Ralf said.
And the German is not the only one to believe that Red Bull has some major concerns to deal with in 2024.
Nico Rosberg believes Red Bull has lost its way without Adrian Newey
Being one of the most successful engineers to ever work in F1, Newey was a crucial part of Red Bull’s dominance in recent years. However, Rosberg thinks that without him, Red Bull is going through an accelerated brain drain.
Per Formule1.nl, the 2016 champion said, “It’s harder without him. Newey is a role model and figure that everyone looks up to. Now that Newey is leaving, this also accelerates the brain drain.”
After McLaren’s dominant win at the Dutch GP, Rosberg still had hope that Red Bull might fight back in the upcoming races. He reasoned that their performance in Zandvoort was still strong with Verstappen finishing second. But, the former Mercedes man also stated that they seem to have lost their way with the car development amid Newey’s exit.
The disappointment of Monza further highlights Rosberg’s sentiment — which even Verstappen agrees with — that Red Bull may no longer be able to fight back in 2024.
