What are the reasons for Red Bull’s drop in performance?

A main reason as to why Red Bull has fallen down the grid is due to numerous high-profile figures leaving the team over the years, such as Adrian Newey, who moved to Aston Martin and Jonathan Wheatley, who moved to Sauber.

Newey, in particular, was a crucial member of Red Bull as he is widely regarded as one of the greatest engineers in F1 history, having won 12 Constructors’ Championship titles and 223 Grands Prix between 1991 and 2024.

Also, he designed the RB19, the most successful F1 car in history, winning 21 out of the 22 races (95.45%) in which it competed.

All this is to show that Red Bull lost a large figure who had the talent and experience to produce race-winning cars, which the team has struggled to do this year with McLaren at the front. 

Another reason for Red Bull’s drop in performance is that 2025 is the last year of the current regulations before a big switch-up in 2026, meaning that the cars have become closer. 

Whilst Red Bull dominated in 2022 and 2023, as time passed, other teams surpassed them to where they are now fourth in the standings behind McLaren, Ferrari and Mercedes.

Furthermore, their lead driver, Verstappen, has openly expressed frustrations with the car this year, with rumours surrounding his future with the team and a possible move to Mercedes. 

When did Red Bull begin to struggle?

Even though Red Bull and Verstappen handily won both titles in 2022, cracks began to emerge with the death of ​​Dietrich Mateschitz, the co-founder and joint-owner of Red Bull.

There was a power struggle in Red Bull between the Austrian and Thai co-owners of the brand, with one side favouring Horner and the other not.

Going further back, Red Bull have struggled to have a second driver in their car who could challenge Verstappen since Daniel Ricciardo’s exit from the Austrian team in 2018.

They promoted Pierre Gasly from their junior team to the main team in 2019, but then demoted him mid-season for their other junior team driver, Alex Albon.

This instability would continue as neither Gasly nor Albon could challenge the Dutch driver. The team then took a chance and signed Sergio Perez for 2021.

The Mexican driver had initially been competitive, especially in his first year at Red Bull, where he helped Verstappen win his first championship in F1.

However, Perez began to struggle as his career went on, with big crashes and regular poor qualifying performances.

Perez won a total of five races with Red Bull from 2021-2024, but was yet again outperformed by Verstappen, who was the Drivers’ champion all of those years.

Therefore, Red Bull tried to help him replicate his great form in 2021 and 2022 with their support and encouragement, but it was not enough, and he was replaced by Liam Lawson for the 2025 season.

Then it was as if we had gone back in time, as Lawson was promoted from their junior team once again into the big team and massively struggled.

Red Bull would repeat the pattern by replacing Lawson after two races with Yuki Tsunoda, who was also from their junior team, and continues to struggle against the mighty Verstappen.

Why did Red Bull fire Christian Horner?

Rumours of Red Bull’s sacking of Horner first started back in February 2024 when he faced an investigation following allegations of inappropriate behaviour towards a female colleague. 

The investigation was conducted by an external lawyer, and Horner was cleared of all wrongdoing later that month, meaning he maintained his position at Red Bull. 

However, this scandal continued to follow him throughout the year, with an anonymous email being sent to F1 journalists containing alleged WhatsApp chats between Horner and the aforementioned colleague. 

Horner continued to claim his innocence throughout 2024 and into 2025, but Verstappen’s father, Jos Verstappen, was reportedly unhappy with the Brit staying in his role at the team.

Therefore, the sacking instead came at a time when Red Bull’s performance had taken a significant downturn compared to previous seasons.

Currently, they are out of contention for the Constructors’ Championship, having a total of 172 points, which is 288 behind leaders McLaren after 12 rounds (halfway through the season). 

This is a very big contrast to this time last year, when they had the lead, having scored 201 points more than their current tally.

Additionally, despite securing two wins (at Suzuka, Japan and Imola, Italy), Verstappen has fallen away from championship leader Oscar Piastri and now trails by 69 points.

The combination of his scandal and the team’s lack of results may have been the deciding factor in letting him go, but more information will undoubtedly be released in the future.

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