Ever since the ground-effect era began, Red Bull was the impeccable force of the grid, coasting home to victories with their star Max Verstappen at the helm. After his maiden title win in 2021, he dominated in 2022 and 2023, barely putting a foot wrong. Sadly, things went awry midway through last season.
Verstappen started 2024 strongly. He won seven out of the opening ten races, making himself and Red Bull the favorites. Again.
But issues with their car’s handling plagued their performance, and saw Verstappen get severely handicapped during races. The Dutchman somehow held on to secure his fourth consecutive title but Red Bull missed out on the Constructors’ championship.
That’s something the Austrian team had hoped to rectify this season. However, Pierre Wache’s recent admission did not inspire much optimism within the camp.
“It wasn’t as smooth a test as we expected and as the team expected,” the Red Bull technical director said after pre-season testing in Bahrain.
Even experts in the paddock noted that there was something off with the RB21, which suggested that they are in for another difficult season ahead.
Technical director Pierre Wache describes Red Bull’s testing as “not as smooth as we expected” ahead of the Australian Grand Prix pic.twitter.com/2PoJgRLA3u
— Sky Sports F1 (@SkySportsF1) March 3, 2025
Wache, however, does not think that their issues are too bad. He wasn’t very pleased with the reliability, but insisted that they would sort things out in the weeks to come.
“I am not as happy as I could be because the car did not respond as we wanted at certain moments, but it is going in the right direction…”
For Red Bull to have any chance of competing for the title, they have to make amends quickly because McLaren and Ferrari look to be much faster. Pre-season testing results can be deceiving, but without a strong start to the season, it would be almost impossible for either Verstappen or Red Bull to fight for the crown.
Verstappen’s take on 2025 title chances
The four-time champion was not a happy figure in the final few months of the 2024 campaign. Red Bull’s handling woes left him frustrated, and he urged his team to “wake up” multiple times in order to avoid a title defeat.
“If we continue like this, I will not be champion next year. It’s that simple,” he said in an interview late last year. That said, he also highlighted the areas of improvement Red Bull needed to focus on, suggesting that they knew what had to be done to get better.
“We know that it has to be better over the kerbs, bumps, and in the slow corners. Those are generally our weak points.”
Verstappen was only able to win the championship last year thanks to his brilliant start to the campaign and his pragmatic driving approach in the closing stages. He won just twice in the last 14 rounds but still managed to hold off McLaren’s Lando Norris to secure P1.
The question now is how Red Bull will develop the car to improve its performance. Focusing too much on 2025 could also impact their plans for 2026, when regulation changes will shake up the grid and Ford will replace Honda as Red Bull’s engine partner.
So, will this season be sacrificed for the greater good at Milton Keynes? We’ll have to wait and see.
