We have known for a while that something was wrong with Sergio Perez’s car. Perez has mentioned the issues he has been having several times. The issues were such a hot topic that they were the focus of a conversation between Red Bull Team Principle Christian Horner and Mercedes Team Principle Toto Wolff on Drive to Survive. “Checo has been saying the car is f**ked” remains one of the most iconic Formula 1 moments yet.
For the past year, Perez has consistently been saying there was something wrong with the car. This season, his car has been so bad, that he has fallen from second place to eighth in the world drivers championship. Despite Perez vocalizing his issues with the car, Red Bull had not addressed these issues until recently.
Christian Horner Identifies Issues with RB20
Red Bull has now not won a race since the Spanish GP which was months ago. After such a bad race at Monza, the Red Bull team finally decided to get to the root of the issue. What was rumored to be balance issues, actually turned out to be issues with the underbody. This particular underbody issue started in Barcelona in 2023 with an upgrade.
⚠️ | Christian Horner on the origins of Red Bull’s Struggles:
“We have traced the development history back and it turned out that the first mistake already happened to us with an underbody upgrade in Barcelona in 2023. That was also the Grand Prix, from which Checo got his… pic.twitter.com/toDlaWj0lE
— Fastest Pitstop (@FastestPitStop) September 16, 2024
“We have traced the development history back and it turned out that the first mistake already happened to us with an underbody upgrade in Barcelona in 2023. That was also the Grand Prix, from which Checo got his problems with the car.” Christian Horner said.
The Red Bull domination has seemingly come to an end with McLaren passing them in the World Constructors’ Championship. After Perez’s crash at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix and Verstappen’s 5th-place finish, McLaren have taken the lead by 20 points.
Why didn’t Red Bull identify the problem before?
The simple answer is Verstappen. The Dutch driver seemed to have insignificant issues with the car itself. This kept Red Bull from investigating as Horner himself, has gone on record saying “We just didn’t take it so seriously because Max kept winning”.
🚨 | Sergio Perez said that some of the Red Bull engineers have apologised to him for ignoring his criticisms of the RB20.
“To be fair, even some of the engineers after Monza came to me and did apologise, in a way, because it’s now a lot clearer that the issues I was talking… pic.twitter.com/VbA9x5BRFy
— Fastest Pitstop (@FastestPitStop) September 20, 2024
Verstappen’s last race win was at the Spanish Grand Prix 7 races ago. Since then, we have had 5 different race winners. Just like Perez, Verstappen has decided to speak up and be vocal about the issues he is having. During the Singapore Grand Prix media duties, Verstappen said: “The car is f**cked” when referring to his RB20 at Baku.
When asked about the fight for the championship, Verstappen mentions that Red Bull “win(s) and lose(s) as a team. The battle for the title is not yet lost.” Do you think Red Bull still has a chance to come back? Post your thoughts in the comments section below.
