Following a four-week break, Formula One returns for three back-to-back races in the Americas, starting with this weekend’s showdown in Austin, Texas.
The United States Grand Prix is also a sprint race weekend and with so many points at stake and little chance to take a breath, the drivers and team personnel will have to hit the ground running straight out of the box.
With six grands prix to go, Max Verstappen remains the championship leader. He is 52 points ahead of Lando Norris but the Dutchman has not won since June’s Spanish GP. Lando, meanwhile, has momentum on his side having won the last race in Singapore from pole.
Signalling how the tide has turned for the once unbeatable Red Bull, it is McLaren who now lead the constructors’ championship. Ferrari are breathing down the neck of Christian Horner’s team. Mercedes aren’t far behind them.
Having lost a number of key technical personnel already, and with design lodestar Adrian Newey and sporting director Jonathan Wheatley soon to depart for Aston Martin and Audi respectively, the Milton Keynes squad are unsettled and panic seems to be setting in.
The team are sticking by No.2 driver Sergio Perez for the remainder of the season but if they continue to slide down the standings he may find he’s made a scapegoat and that his contract for next year is cancelled.
Liam Lawson is now at junior team RB and being evaluated for the senior squad following the dismissal of Daniel Ricciardo three weeks ago. Horner insists his technical department, led by Pierre Wache, is as strong as ever and does not want to admit this isn’t the case should his own tenure come under scrutiny. But Red Bull appear to have weakened in a number of areas in the past year.
‘We desperately need answers,’ Horner said about the driver situation. ‘When you look at our opponents, Ferrari will be strong next year, with [Lewis] Hamilton and [Charles] Leclerc. Plus Norris and [Oscar] Piastri is a strong line-up. We need to make sure both of our drivers that there’s not a big gap between them, because you can’t afford that.’
Perez has less than half as many pointsas Verstappen – 144 to the triple world champion’s 331.
Verstappen has taken the last three victories at the Circuit of the Americas but he is really on the back foot this week. Those answers Horner is demanding of the drivers are the tip of the iceberg. What the team are really desperate for are answers as to why their car is underperforming, having been the class of the field in the first half of the season.
The RB20 has developed balance issues, possibly related to a new floor that was introduced in Barcelona. These issues are hurting the tyres and the lap times. For the first time since 2020, Verstappen is braking and steering around corners without total confidence.
The set-up tuning is extremely precise, as is the operating temperature of its Pirellis, and unless they nail both the car is no longer capable of the top spot.
It is interesting to note these problems developed just a month after Newey left his role in F1 car development. His remaining time has seen him work on Red Bull Applied Technologies’ commercial hypercar project.
If Red Bull’s form continues to sink next season, few believe Verstappen will still be there in 2026. In response to questions about tearing up his contract, which runs till the end of 2028, the driver declared he was much more concerned about fixing this year’s car.
‘We have enough to worry about at the moment,’ he said. ‘We will see what happens in the future. I’m not really thinking about it too much. But if it doesn’t happen [winning the title in 2024], then so be it. It won’t change my life.’
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