Red Bull have introduced a major upgrade package onto their car at the Hungarian Grand Prix this weekend. They’re trying to re-establish the advantage they had over McLaren, Mercedes and Ferrari.
They started the year in truly ominous fashion with four wins and three one-two finishes in the first five races. Nobody could even get close to Max Verstappen when his car was running smoothly.
But then their rivals’ upgrades started to kick in. McLaren played their hand in Miami, Ferrari followed at Imola and Mercedes transformed their campaign soon after.
Verstappen has now won three of the last seven Grands Prix – still a healthy return but the kind of run that had been unthinkable since the middle of the 2022 season. He’s still set to win the drivers’ championship, having built up an 84-point lead over Lando Norris.
But Red Bull are in danger of losing out on the constructors’ title. McLaren and Mercedes have both been chipping away at their advantage recently, setting the stage for a dramatic fight after the summer break.
Adrian Newey has been ‘strongly against’ Red Bull’s development route, which points to his declining influence. The legendary designer has already handed in his resignation ahead of 2025.
Red Bull may have taken Adrian Newey advice with RB20 upgrades
After the initial decisions of technical director Pierre Wache and head of aerodynamics Enrico Balbo failed to deliver the desired results, the team may now have adopted some of Newey’s ideas. Formu1a.uno journalist Piergiuseppe Donadoni, writing on his X account, has suggested as much.
He’s noticed that one part Newey opposed has ‘disappeared’ from the car at the Hungaroring. The success of the comprehensive package could go a long way to determining Red Bull’s prospects for the remainder of the year.
“Did Wache listen to Newey?” he wrote. “As anticipated, Newey didn’t like the Mercedes-style guns and, at least in Hungary, they disappear from the RB20 in a package that is considered the most important of the season so far.”
In an attached Formu1a.uno article, Donadoni explains that Red Bull’s changes are partly a response to requests made by Verstappen himself. The world champions have reverted back to a 2022-style engine cover and their sidepods look ‘more similar to the previous solutions’ too.
Intriguingly, reserve driver Liam Lawson was the first to try out the revised car. Lawson was behind the wheel for a nominal ‘filming day’ at Silverstone last week.
Ted Kravitz stunned by Max Verstappen Red Bull issue that’s ‘unheard of’
It may be a slight concern that, with Wache and Balbo taking on more power, Red Bull have lost ground relative to their rivals. Many will be wondering how the team will cope with the loss of Newey, who has been there since the start of their project.
But to a certain degree, it was inevitable that competitors would catch up given their resources. Newey has already admitted that Red Bull are ‘struggling’ to extract more pace, having almost perfected the current ruleset with their record-shattering RB19.
Still, Sky Sports F1 analyst Ted Kravitz says it’s ‘unheard of’ for teams to outdevelop Red Bull over the course of a season. It may be that the points they hoovered up in the early rounds make all the difference.
But the stage is set for an epic title battle in 2025. Starting from virtually an even keel, all four front-running teams will believe they’re in with a chance of winning the title.
