2024 The Long Goodbye to Absolute Control for Red Bull Racing 2024

Formula 1 Season 2024: The Ups and Downs of Red Bull Racing​

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Opening Editorial – The Long Goodbye to Absolute Control​

If 2023 was Red Bull Racing’s peak, then 2024 was the year gravity finally returned.

Coming off the most dominant season in Formula One history, Oracle Red Bull Racing entered 2024 as overwhelming favourites. Max Verstappen was chasing a fourth consecutive Drivers’ Championship, the technical regulations were stable, and the organisation under Christian Horner and Adrian Newey remained intact.

Yet by season’s end, Red Bull had won the championship without commanding it. Rivals closed in, margins shrank, and the aura of inevitability that had defined the previous two seasons began to dissolve — not through failure, but through resistance.

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The Ups – Where Red Bull Still Ruled​

1. Verstappen’s Circuit Mastery Across the Calendar​

Red Bull’s 2024 campaign was defined by selective brilliance, and Verstappen remained devastating at circuits that suited his rhythm and Red Bull’s aerodynamic strengths.

Key victories came at:

• Bahrain International Circuit – controlled season opener
• Suzuka Circuit – high‑speed precision in changing conditions
• Red Bull Ring (Spielberg) – home race dominance
• Silverstone – winning despite pressure from McLaren
• Circuit of the Americas – late‑season authority
• Yas Marina Circuit (Abu Dhabi) – championship‑sealing control

These wins were less about raw advantage and more about execution. At tracks where commitment, confidence on entry, and rear stability mattered, Verstappen remained the reference point.

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2. The RB20: Evolution That Still Worked​

The RB20 was not revolutionary, but it was refined.

Designed under Pierre Waché, with Newey still influential though increasingly focused on future concepts, the car retained:

• excellent aero efficiency in medium‑ and high‑speed corners
• strong traction off slow exits
• predictable long‑run balance on conventional circuits

While less dominant over a full season than its predecessor, the RB20 was still capable of winning anywhere under the right conditions — a critical asset as the competitive order tightened.

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3. Operational Excellence Under Pressure​

Red Bull’s pit wall remained one of the grid’s strongest.

Figures such as Gianpiero Lambiase and Hannah Schmitz continued to extract wins on weekends where Red Bull were not clearly fastest. Victories at Silverstone and COTA were as much about tyre phase control and safety‑car anticipation as outright pace.

This ability to win ugly ultimately separated Red Bull from rivals over the full season.

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The Downs – Where the Cracks Appeared​

1. McLaren Carried Momentum at the Wrong Circuits​

Red Bull’s greatest vulnerability in 2024 was not defeat — it was erosion.

At circuits such as:

• Hungaroring
• Zandvoort
• Singapore Street Circuit
• Monaco

McLaren’s MCL38 often looked the more complete package. Red Bull still scored well, but the gap that once allowed Verstappen to recover from imperfect qualifying weekends was gone.

Championship points leaked away not in disasters, but in fourths, fifths, and seconds.

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2. The Perez Problem Returned​

The second Red Bull seat again became a structural weakness.

Sergio Pérez struggled to extract consistent performance from the RB20 at tracks demanding precision on turn‑in and confidence under braking — notably Barcelona, Budapest, and Singapore. While he secured podiums early in the year, his ability to support Verstappen in the Constructors’ fight diminished as the season progressed.

Red Bull increasingly fought with one fully operational car on Sundays.

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3. The End of Psychological Supremacy​

Perhaps the most important change in 2024 was invisible.

Red Bull were no longer feared in the same way.

McLaren, Ferrari, and Mercedes approached weekends believing Red Bull could be beaten on merit. That shift mattered. Races at Imola, Monaco, and Singapore featured rivals dictating pace and strategy in ways that would have been unthinkable twelve months earlier.

Red Bull still won — but no longer by default.

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Drivers – One Constant, One Unsolved Equation​

Max Verstappen​

Verstappen’s fourth championship was arguably his most complete.

He adapted to narrower margins, delivered under sustained pressure, and was decisive at the moments that mattered. His ability to dominate at circuits like Suzuka and Spielberg, then defend aggressively at Monaco or recover at Singapore, underscored a driver operating at full maturity.

2024 was less spectacular than 2023 — and far more impressive.

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Sergio Pérez​

Pérez’s season followed a familiar arc.

Strong early‑season form gave way to mid‑year inconsistency, particularly as upgrades sharpened the RB20’s responsiveness. While never destabilising internally, his inability to consistently qualify and race near Verstappen again prompted questions about Red Bull’s long‑term driver strategy.

Those questions would come to define 2025.

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Leadership and the First Signs of Transition​

Although outwardly stable, 2024 quietly marked the beginning of Red Bull’s transition phase.

• Adrian Newey’s role became increasingly future‑focused
• Lower‑risk development choices hinted at long‑term planning
• 2026 power‑unit responsibility loomed ever larger

Red Bull were still winning — but they were no longer spending every bullet on the present.

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Verdict – The Last “Comfortable” Title​

Red Bull won 2024.

But they did not own it.

This was the season where dominance narrowed into superiority, where execution replaced excess, and where Verstappen became less a beneficiary of advantage and more its enforcer. The RB20 was excellent — just no longer untouchable.

In hindsight, 2024 reads as the final season of Red Bull’s uncontested authority, before 2025 exposed vulnerability and 2026 reset the grid entirely.

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Discussion Prompts​

• Was 2024 Verstappen’s most complete championship?
• Did Red Bull already prioritise 2026 over tightening the RB20?
• Could a stronger second driver have prevented the momentum loss?

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Encyclopaedic Linking Notes​

This entry embeds:

• Drivers: Max Verstappen, Sergio Pérez
• Personnel: Christian Horner, Adrian Newey, Pierre Waché, Gianpiero Lambiase, Hannah Schmitz
• Circuits: Bahrain, Suzuka, Spielberg, Silverstone, Hungaroring, Monaco, Singapore, COTA, Yas Marina

All suitable for later driver, engineer, team‑member, and circuit pages.