Red Bull pace decline ‘really weird’ as Toto Wolff makes ‘worst race’ claim

Toto Wolff says Red Bull’s loss of form in recent races is “really weird” – but doubts the team can be written off just yet.

With Red Bull going from dominant wins to middling points positions in recent races, Mercedes’ team boss Toto Wolff is mystified by where the Milton Keynes-based squad’s pace has vanished.

Toto Wolff: That was one of Red Bull’s worst races for many years

With Red Bull failing to trouble the podium at Monza as Max Verstappen came home in sixth with Sergio Perez in eighth, it’s resulted in Red Bull’s championship lead over McLaren shrinking down to just eight points with eight race weekends remaining.

Momentum is firmly on McLaren’s side, with the MCL38 proving one of the fastest and most versatile cars on the grid – if not the outright quickest.

It’s been a bizarre shift in fortunes for Red Bull, who started the year picking up where it left off last season, with dominant wins including four victories from the first six races.

But Verstappen is now winless since the Spanish Grand Prix in June, his longest losing streak since 2020, and Wolff said the Dutch driver’s talents are no longer enough to keep Red Bull ahead of the rest.

“Yeah, that’s really weird,” he told PlanetF1.com when asked about Red Bull’s change in competitiveness.

“I mean, I have no insight, obviously, but that is not at all the Red Bull of the start of the year – dominant.

“I think that Max was able to keep it going for a while with his ability, but it seems now that, from the sheer results – and that’s what I see without understanding, without knowing what’s going on inside because it could also be a blip.

“That was probably one of the worst races that we’ve seen for many years, to have no pace. But who am I to say that? We’ve been two years where nothing functioned and the same with Ferrari a few races ago.”

While things might be going against Red Bull at present, Wolff said it would be perilous to write off the reigning World Champions any time soon.

“I don’t think you can write them off,” he said.

“They are a formidable team, and I’m sure there will be better races, but, I mean, McLaren is clearly the favourite now for the Constructors’ Championship, they have two drivers scoring. I bet Red Bull didn’t expect that at the beginning of the year.”

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Christian Horner sheds light on Red Bull issues

Speaking to the media after the Italian Grand Prix, Red Bull team boss Christian Horner spoke of the disconnect between the front and rear of the RB20 that his drivers are experiencing.

While the RB20 still shows up as competitively fast on occasion, Horner said the balance issues that have emerged are exacerbated by the mitigating steps the team is having to make.

“I think on others, perhaps running more downforce perhaps hides some of the balance issues that we have,” he said.

“You can see that we’ve got a disconnection in balance that just isn’t working.

“Then, as soon as you end up in that situation, you end up harder on tyres, you end up compensating. You move the balance around. You cure one problem, but you create another. So you just end up in a vicious circle.”

Curiously, Horner also revealed that the issues currently plaguing the team actually first arose towards the end of the 2023 season as the dominant RB19 showed signs of the same imbalance.

“I think it’s been there for some time,” he said.

“Actually, really going through the data, there were issues there at the beginning of the year in the characteristic.

“Others have obviously made a step and, as we push the package harder, it’s exposed the issue.

“Even if you go back in the data, there were a few races last year where we started to see this – in Austin and so on.

“So I think it’s a characteristic that we know we have to address, and it’s full focus in the factory of Milton Keynes to do that.”

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