F1 2024 Season Review - Red Bull Racing

Red Bull’s 2024 season saw glory on track but backstage strife, raising questions about the stability of its once-impervious dominance.

Red Bull Racing’s performance on paper should appear very strong, with another title secured. However, the drop compared to 2023 is the most noticeable, and it was Max Verstappen alone who managed to save his team in 2024.

On one side of the Red Bull garage, 2024 was another season of excellence – Max Verstappen secured his fourth consecutive title despite increased competition on the grid. On the other side, it was a tough season for Sergio Perez, with the Mexican’s results meaning Red Bull dropped to third in the constructors’ championship. These performances cost Perez his seat despite a contract extension, with Liam Lawson replacing him in 2025.

If you had predicted at the start of 2024 that Max Verstappen wouldn’t win a Grand Prix for 10 races in a row, you would have been ridiculed. Yet, this is exactly what happened during one of the most competitive Formula 1 seasons in recent years.

But despite the competition and the RB20’s issues at various points in the season, Verstappen once again demonstrated his champion qualities – and arguably with more style than ever.

In total, the Red Bull driver won nine Grand Prix – more than any other driver on the grid in 2024 – allowing him to secure his fourth title in Las Vegas. However, if one race highlighted his incredible talent, it was his drive from 17th to 1st in Brazil, which will be remembered for many years to come as one of his best.

It’s no surprise that the statistics between the two drivers were one-sided in favor of Verstappen, given Perez’s form.

Perez’s qualifying results were particularly hard to bear for the team – he suffered six Q1 exits and three Q2 exits in 2024. He also only outperformed Verstappen once in the last 41 races.

Despite Perez’s issues, Verstappen was brilliant in the pursuit of the fastest lap. He started the season with seven consecutive pole positions and consistently maximized what was available to him.

In terms of race stats, once again, the Dutchman dominates, the only exception being… his retirement in Australia, where Perez finished fifth.

Perez could have added another race victory in Azerbaijan – the only weekend where he seemed to have the upper hand over his teammate – but his late-race crash with Carlos Sainz put him out of the running for third place.

However, with Verstappen almost always fighting at the front, Perez’s decline in 2024 is striking. After four podiums in the first seven races, he immediately followed that with two retirements in Monaco and Canada. There would be no more podiums for him for the rest of the season, his best result thereafter being a sixth place at Zandvoort!

But Red Bull Racing’s season also, and perhaps more importantly, veered off track. To put it simply, Red Bull will need to move on after the departure of two key figures, with Technical Director Adrian Newey leaving early in the year to join Aston Martin (in March 2025), while Jonathan Wheatley will become Audi’s team principal starting January 1st.

Team principal Christian Horner has long insisted that there is plenty of talent throughout the organization to cope with these departures, but time will ultimately tell.

And of course, there was the scandal of the Horner affair, even before the season began. The antics of the team boss with his assistant were made public, nearly costing him his position. After months of internal tension between the Austrian and Thai factions, calm seems to have returned—but at what cost to the team’s image?

Red Bull Racing is undoubtedly on a downward slope, and the RB21, to be overseen by Pierre Waché and his team, will need to prove that Milton Keynes can deliver without Newey in 2025.

Max Verstappen will undoubtedly rise to the occasion; the question remains how Liam Lawson will fare alongside him. If he can significantly improve on Sergio Perez’s results, it will already be a solid achievement. Even though the New Zealander likely has higher ambitions, should the Austrian car regain its consistency and balance. In that case, he will clearly be tasked with securing the constructors’ title, lost in 2024 to McLaren F1.

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