Max Verstappen has won 50 of the last 75 Grands Prix. His victory in Canada marked the 26-year-old’s 60th triumph overall. But the days of Sunday drives with a can of Red Bull in hand seem to be over. Not only on street circuits like Monaco or Montreal, but also on traditional race tracks like Barcelona, Red Bull is no longer the clear favorite. If it’s up to Max Verstappen.
Barcelona: The place where Max Verstappen won his first race on May 15, 2016, at the age of 18 years and 228 days, and went down in Formula 1 history as the youngest GP winner. Since then, at least one Red Bull driver has always been on the podium at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya. Verstappen has won the Grand Prix for the last two years.
Max Verstappen: Red Bull dominance in Formula 1 is over
“I don’t expect it to be an easy weekend,” says Max Verstappen. “We know that this track suits our cars a little better. But it won’t be like it was at the start of the season.” As a reminder: His cushion from Bahrain (Victory with a lead of 22.457 seconds over Sergio Perez) shrank to 3.879 seconds (Lando Norris) by the time he reached Canada.
The competition is now uncomfortable in the DRS window, with McLaren, Ferrari and Mercedes theoretically three teams capable of winning in every race. As in Imola or Canada, however, Max Verstappen is often able to tip the scales with his talent. “Everyone has caught up and everyone is pretty confident,” said the Limburger.
“These rules don’t offer much leeway. With the 21-man regulations, you could do a lot more. Here, you quickly reach your limit,” explains the three-time world champion. “And some people are pretty good at analyzing everything we do.” Postscript: “But I would do that too if I was behind. You look at the best team and try to learn.”
However, this does not cause any tension within the team. “We always want to do well, but we also know that the others are going full throttle,” explains Verstappen. Conversely, a poor result would not be the end of the world. “If things don’t go according to plan, that’s no reason to go overboard!”
Training Friday now Red Bull’s Achilles heel
The key to success for Red Bull in Barcelona: avoid problems on Friday and quickly find a good setup. “Every Friday we have all sorts of small problems that make things difficult for us. We make it difficult for ourselves and just have to try to get off to a clean start to the weekend. That would help a lot,” appeals Verstappen.
In Monaco, the RB20 jumped like a kangaroo, in Canada Verstappen had to stop after 14 laps in the second free practice session due to a defective engine. “You can bring in upgrades as much as you want, but if you don’t get a good setup together…” he says.
In the entire 2023 Formula 1 season, Max Verstappen did not finish on the top of the podium in a total of three races. In 2024, he “lost” two after 9 of 24 Grands Prix. Uneven street circuits with bumps and kerbs are known to be Red Bull’s kryptonite. But if the RB20 struggles again on a classic race track like the one in Spain, the Bulls could soon be on orange alert.
Sergio Perez is already on red alert. Despite his future being secure, the Mexican is struggling from one difficult weekend to the next. He is still carrying a grid penalty from his Canada debacle. “Having this phase of bad races is obviously painful. The good thing about it is that I know that with just one good race I can regain my momentum.”
Aside from Sergio Perez, Sauber is also in trouble. A new chassis should now at least put out some of the fires for Zhou Guanyu. You can find out all about it here: