Sergio Perez Crash, Verstappen in 5th Place: What the Heck Happened to Red Bull F1?

It's true that Red Bull's Formula 1 racing team holds an insane record. No, it doesn't involve the number of 10 oz. sugar-free Red Bulls one person was able to consume in a single sitting before their heart buzzed right into cardiac arrest.

The racing squad sponsored by the popular Austrian beverage company currently holds the record for the most consecutive wins in F1 history. However, a recent fifth-place finish by Max Verstappen and a "worst-case scenario" crash involving his teammate Sergio Perez are two more crooked steps in the downward spiral staircase pushing Red Bull further away from its dominant past.

So what happened to them?

What happened to Red Bull F1?

It should be mentioned that just by virtue of repetition, Red Bull victories, thanks to this unprecedented win streak, have become foregone conclusions in the minds of F1 fans.

Sports Illustrated speculated in 2023 that even their own racers were starting to become "bored" with the constant Red Bull victories.

Race after race after race, Red Bull kept edging out the competition. Red Bull driving phenom Max Verstappen went as far as to say that fans who had a problem with a particular squad maintaining a sustained high level of driving excellence for so long aren't legitimate fans of the sport.

Commenting in a 2023 Racing News 365 post, Verstappen replied that he didn't think there was anything inherently bad about his team's continued domination of the sport. "I don't think about what is good for F1, I don't think it was necessarily bad, what was happening, we were just better than everyone else," he said.

Verstappen added, "If people can't appreciate that, you are not a real fan, but this is how it goes."

Oh, how much has changed since then. During the 2023 Italian Grand Prix, Verstappen was pumping his fist in the air after clocking in a record-busting 10th straight 1st place win.

Then, 2024 held more elation: Verstappen nabbed 1st in four more consecutive races, with team Red Bull getting both the top and second spots in three of the contests.

Things started taking a turn for the worse on Sunday, May 5 at the 2024 Miami Grand Prix. It was here that McLaren managed to pull a where-the-heck-did-that-come-from victory, leaving Max in second place.

Red Bull F1 cars were slowly losing ground to the competition.

At least that's what The Score argued was the case. While Red Bull was compiling a massive streak of wins that shocked F1 Grand Prix after Grand Prix — the outlet presented analytics that showed how rival teams were bit by but gaining ground.

The website specifically named Miami, Austria, and Zandvoort as the circuits where McLaren really hit its stride as part of the Surrey, England-based speed squad.

But it wasn't just McLaren's constant tinkering and dogged pursuit of improvement that led to their first top-level victory since 2021.

It's believed that Red Bull also suffered a significant loss that hindered its chances at maintaining its winning ways: the team's chief engineer Adrian Newey.

Coincidentally (or consequently?), Newey turned away from the team to join Aston Martin Racing as a shareholder and Managing Technical partner right before the 2024 Miami Grand Prix.

This seems to have marked the beginning of the end for Red Bull F1.

Is the RB20 to blame for Red Bull F1's fall from grace?

The Score also had some negative things to say about the car, writing that it runs through tires very quickly. It's not the best at handling "bumps and curbs," and different track temperatures can cause the car to oversteer.

Red Bull's team principal, Christian Horner, seems to think that there's a disconnect with their testing of the RB20 versus the real-world performance the vehicle's been displaying in its races.

"Recent upgrades, whilst they've put load on the car, it's disconnected front and rear. We can see that, our wind tunnel doesn't say that, but the track says that. So it's getting on top of that, because obviously, when you have that, it means you can't trust your tools," he said.

Again, it's worth keeping in mind that any top-level professional sport where there's lots of money to be made is often a game of millimeters. Although there are a lot of people wondering just what the heck happened to Red Bull, they should probably remember that the team was absolutely invincible for longer than any other squad in F1 history.

So maybe put some respect on Red Bull's name while they suss out their car qualms.