Red Bull RB20 development theory emerges with Sergio Perez called out

Former Ferrari race engineer Rob Smedley has questioned whether losing their speed advantage has forced Red Bull to push a little harder, bringing out the “foibles” of the RB20.

Red Bull recorded arguably the most dominant campaign ever last season when the team raced out to 21 victories in 22 races, claimed the 1-2 in the Drivers’ Championship and won the Constructors’.

Rob Smedley: I wouldn’t say Red Bull faltered, but…

It was a record-breaking season for Dutch driver Max Verstappen as he secured 10 wins on the trot and 19 in total on his way to a third successive World title.

The only argument against it being the most dominant season ever were Sergio Perez’s performances as he only brought home second place behind Verstappen four times, meaning even though the Dutchman was runner-up in the Mexican driver’s two wins, Red Bull fell short of McLaren’s 10 from 1988 when they too won all but one race.

A year later Perez continues to be the weak link in Red Bull’s driver line-up, and that’s not helping the team in the midst of McLaren’s surge.

McLaren’s MCL38 has surpassed Red Bull’s RB20 as the fastest car on the grid, the Woking team faultless in their 2024 upgrades while the same cannot be said of Red Bull.

The reigning World Champions have lost the development war having been forced to dial back on their Hungarian Grand Prix update after the new floor made the car a “monster” even for Verstappen.

“We basically went from a very dominant car to an undriveable car in the space of, what, six to eight months,” Verstappen rued. “That is very weird for me. We need to really turn the car upside down.”

Smedley wonders if it’s a case of Red Bull and the drivers pushing harder that has brought the car’s weaknesses to the surface.

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Speaking on the Formula For Success podcast, the former Ferrari and Williams man called Red Bull one of the “biggest enigma of this season.

“I think that Red Bull have to do something, they no longer have…. I mean, it’s clear, right, they don’t have the fastest car by a country mile,” he said.

“I can remember sitting on this podcast, and we all said that Max was going to be the 2024 World Champion because that’s what it felt like at that point in the season.

“I think, had we even turned a wheel yet? But we’d done winter testing, and it looked like it was all going to go off as previous years.

“And then they have, I wouldn’t say faltered, but they haven’t developed the car as fast and definitely that car is not as comfortable as the previous year’s car.

“Now is that just because they don’t have the advantage that they had and so the drivers and the engineers and all try a little bit harder, and all the foibles of the car come out, or they just haven’t developed it?

“I don’t know, but definitely they don’t feel as strong and as coherent as in previous years.”

And the team hasn’t been helped by Perez’s latest slump with the Mexican driver currently sitting on a 13-race steak without a top-three result to his name.

“And then Checo as well, you know, he’s got to start,” Smedley added. “Where I come from, we say doing the patsy. He’s got to start doing the patsy for the team.”

Perez is down in eighth place in the Drivers’ Championship without a win on the board while Verstappen still leads but his advantage after eight races without a win is down to 52 points over Lando Norris.

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