The biggest mystery of recent years in Formula 1

In it F1 paddockin the last two races, at Zandvoort and monzano one can solve the biggest mystery of recent years in F1. How did a car that swept the last two world championships suddenly crash? What they are referring to Red Bulll. No one can explain what happened to the car where Max Verstappen He dominated with gusto even in the early races of this course.

In that car, in 2023 the Dutchman achieved the all-time record for wins in a single year: 19 wins out of a possible 22 (86%). And in total, Red Bull won 21 of the 22 Grand Prix held last year. The greatest dominance in the entire history of F1. And at the start of this season, everyone is breathing high with Max Verstappen starting the year. Everything seems to indicate that the film will be repeated.

In the first appointment of 2024, Max won Bahrain with 22 seconds ahead of his team-mate Pérez and with a 25” margin over third place, Sainz’s Ferrari. Meanwhile, Norris’ McLaren was 6th, 48” from the lead. In Saudi Arabia, Red Bull’s double was repeated and Max gained 18 seconds on Leclerc and 32” at best McLaren (Piastri). Sainz’s win in Australia appears to have been a simple setback for Red Bull due to a particular mechanical failure, as he then ran again in Japan with Max lead the third Red Bull double, with Sainz 20” behind and the first McLaren (Norris) at 29”. And in China, Max wins with 13” over Lando.

How is this possible?

In our years in the paddock, we’re tired of hearing engineers say it’s impossible for a team to make up a second on the same course, in a matter of months. But this season something doubly unexpected happened: Red Bull suddenly dissolved and McLaren has continued to evolve its car in an incredible way since the last Miami GP. Since then, The orange car, which starts 2023 below, is the best on the grid and the Red Bull from before seems to be absent.

For the last two years, Red Bull has had a car that has raced on the track and last year it only suffered on a mousey track like Singapore, where only Sainz could take victory over the entire course. But suddenly, the car won’t drive and the Red Bull midgets are piling up.

“Last year we had the most dominant car in history and we turned it into a monster, an impossible car to drive. And it happened in six to eight months. “I can motivate the team, but I can’t can design the car.”Max argued at Monza, making it clear that “if we continue like this we will not win the same title (drivers and manufacturers).

The problem is huge. But no one understands how this happened. And the results are remarkable: Max has 6 consecutive races without winning, something that has not happened to him since 2020. At Zandvoort, Lando won with a 22” advantage over Max, who even overtook him like a rocket. on track. AND at Monza, Piastri (2nd) got 35”. Unbelievable.

Various rumors and hypotheses

“Something strange happened at Red Bull,” is repeated in the paddock. The most supported theory is that the FIA ​​may have secretly ‘captured’ Red Bull. Perhaps, an illegal element was found that made the difference. But no one has confirmed it and Red Bull has denied it. MD even spoke to a respected engineer from the current F1 team and he didn’t have a concrete answer: “That theory makes sense, but we don’t know. And McLaren has improved a lot.”

Furthermore, MD spoke to someone close to the team at Monza, who was assured that inside the box you can’t hear anything and that they just suffer a lot to find the balance of the car and to understand the tires. Even though At the last event at Silverstone, the team hired an external expert to analyze the tires to go into the following events with more certainty. But they still don’t understand wheels. However, the tires are the same in 2023, so the problem does not lie there.

Have they caught Red Bull yet?

The most noticeable thing is that the car struggles a lot to ride the curves, something that didn’t happen before. And as the weekend wore on, Red Bull didn’t improve the balance. Has the FIA ​​removed anything related to the suspension? That could explain many of their problems. On the other hand, it should be noted that the FIA ​​​​issued a directive recalling the ban on asymmetric brakes, something that has a lot to do with the decline of Red Bull, although in the paddock it is ensured that the issue does not go there.

What if Red Bull got the evolutions wrong? It’s probably a purely aerodynamic issue. That while they were adding pieces, they made a mistake and the car broke down. Therein lies the problem, of course, when they no longer have the help of aerodynamics wizard, Adrian Newey, to help with his revolutionary ideas.

It should be noted that Newey himself admitted in February that for the creation of the 2024 car they had doubts whether they were conservative or not. due to the massive growth of rivals such as McLaren. Maybe your car has reached its limit. Or maybe they get better. Be that as it may, The mystery is so great and it smells singeing to all of us.