Guenther Steiner says era has ‘come to an end’ for 281-podium F1 team after 2024

Formula 1 saw a constructors’ champion crowned for the first time in 26 years in the 2024 season.

McLaren beat Ferrari to the championship by 14 points after Lando Norris claimed his fourth win of the season at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. Despite Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc’s best efforts with second and third and Oscar Piastri’s collision with Max Verstappen, Norris held off the pressure to seal the Woking-based outfit the title.

It is McLaren’s first Constructors’ Championship win since 1998 as they continue their meteoric rise in F1 from backmarkers at the start of 2023 to victors in 2024.

While McLaren missed out on the drivers’ title to Max Verstappen, who grabbed his fourth consecutive championship in Las Vegas, it does seem that the Woking-based outfit are the team to beat in 2025.

Despite Verstappen’s success, it was a rocky season for Red Bull as the RB20 proved difficult to drive from the halfway point of the season. The Dutchman and Sergio Perez struggled to extract the best from the car as the former went 10 races without a win from Barcelona to Sao Paulo.

Perez had already been struggling long before then as he did not finish in the top five again after the Miami Grand Prix. But Red Bull’s drop in performance was clear to see, and it has raised some concerns heading into next season.

Guenther Steiner thinks Red Bull’s dominance has ‘come to an end’ after the 2024 season

McLaren and Ferrari surpassed Red Bull in development in 2024 as the Milton Keynes-based outfit finished behind them in third, 77 points behind the champions McLaren.

Perez’s woeful form was a key factor in Red Bull losing their crown, as well as the multiple departures within the team that ultimately affected their performance – the most notable being legendary designer Adrian Newey, who will join Aston Martin in 2025.

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Newey’s departure heavily affected Red Bull on the track, with Jonathan Wheatley and Will Courtenay’s exits also being damaging for the team. Heading into next season where Red Bull no longer have the fastest car, Guenther Steiner thinks their era of dominance has ‘come to an end’.

“It doesn’t get any easier. All the departures are definitely not easy to cope with,” he said via the Champ1 YouTube channel.

“I think Red Bull has good people in the second line, I have to say that I’m confident that they can move forward, but at the moment they’re just not as superior as they were in recent years and they’ll just have to work on that again.

“But why should someone always have this advantage? I don’t think Red Bull has done anything wrong in that they’re no longer dominant. All good things come to an end and for Red Bull this dominance, I think has simply come to an end now.

“Red Bull [being] dominant will not happen, I’m pretty sure that’s what you’ll see.”

Sergio Perez looks to be on the way out of Red Bull

As the 2025 season approaches, Red Bull look set to axe Perez after his worst season with the team since he joined in 2021. With his departure imminent, all eyes are on the team as confirmation of his replacement awaits.

RB drivers Liam Lawson and Yuki Tsunoda are in contention for a promotion to Red Bull, with the former seemingly the favourite.

Tsunoda tested with Red Bull in Abu Dhabi on Tuesday in a possible auditon to become Verstappen’s teammate. But Helmut Marko and Christian Horner disagree over Tsunoda and whether he should be given the second seat, with the Red Bull team principal not keen on the Japanese driver.

Juan Pablo Montoya thinks Tsunoda drove too slowly in Abu Dhabi for Red Bull to consider him for 2025. While the timings are nothing to go by, the 24-year-old was the slowest of the Red Bull drivers in 17th.

Red Bull did not have a media session in Abu Dhabi over fears their drivers would be questioned about the meeting the team’s hierarchy had the day before the test. Who Red Bull chooses to race alongside Verstappen next year is anyone’s guess, but Perez’s time with the team looks all but over.