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Why Red Bull F1 Can Win a Driver’s Championship but Never a Constructors’ Title

Published 02/11/2020, 9:40 AM EST

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The brilliant days Red Bull F1 of the mid-2010s, when they won four back to back double world championships, appears to be a lifetime prior. A third-place finish in the 2019 constructors’ title isn’t enough to propose they will end their desolate run. There are a lot of reasons why they could well be a thistle in Mercedes and Ferrari’s side in 2020.

The 2019 crusade was extraordinary, though. Without a doubt, they were third again, and never sensibly in the title battle after the RB15 demonstrated dubious to open in the opening barely any races. Furthermore, indeed, they finished the year 322 points afloat of champions Mercedes. The deficiency expanding by 84 on the past season. Also, their count of three triumphs – all courtesy of Max Verstappen – was one down on 2018.

The example of their 2019 season is much as it was two years prior – starting each season with a critical aerodynamic issue yet forcefully building up out of it to end the year as seemingly the quickest vehicle. The season in the middle of – 2018 – had an alternate example, as the RB14 was entirely serious from the off.

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Christian Horner is happy with the Honda partnership.

Unless somebody pulls a rabbit out of a hat, then I think we’re set for a really exciting year next year between Mercedes, Ferrari, ourselves.”

“It’s a true partnership. You can see what it means to Honda when they get a result when they get a pole position and they get a victory, the emotion, the pride, the satisfaction throughout the whole business,” adds Horner. “So, I think it’s a very, very different relationship to one we previously had with Renault during this V6 turbo-hybrid era.”

Red Bull F1 over the years

Red Bull F1 was at the pinnacle for four consecutive years from 2010-2013; with Sebastian Vettel taking Drivers’ title and the team took Constructors’ title. Then came the 2014 season where everyone witnessed the domination of Mercedes F1. Since then no other team has been able to tackle Mercedes F1. There have been several changes in the Red Bull F1 camp over the years.

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It has been a general view of the fans and F1 pundits that Red Bull F1 creates an unofficial tag of 1st driver, 2nd driver and gives priority to the 1st driver. In the year 2014, Mark Webber left the team. He was replaced by Daniel Ricciardo. Next year Sebastian Vettel left the team and was replaced by Daniil Kvyat. In 2016, the team demoted Daniil Kvyat and promoted the young Max Verstappen. This was done due to the declining performance of the former. The event of demoting a driver was quite ruthless on Red Bull F1’s part.

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2017-19 saw the diminishing relationship between the two teammates, Max and Ricciardo. Ricciardo also admitted about the preferential treatment which was going on at the Red Bull F1. He left the team for Renault F1.

The team repeated the same with Pierre Gasly what they did with Daniil Kvyat. He was demoted in the middle of the 2019 season and Alex Albon took his place. Pierre Gasly went on to say that this was disheartening for him.

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Red Bull F1 in 2020

Currently, Max Verstappen and Alex Albon are the drivers for the 2020 season. On 7 January 2020, it was announced that Verstappen had signed a contract extension with Red Bull F1 until the end of 2023. It is clear that the team is giving importance to Max while giving less emphasis on the 2nd driver. If this goes on, Red Bull F1 could win the drivers’ championship with Max but won’t be able to win the Constructors’ title.

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Written by:

Abhay Aggarwal

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Abhay Aggarwal is sports analyst at EssentiallySports. Having joined ES in early 2020, he has over 300 NASCAR, Formula 1, and Tennis articles to his name. Abhay has been an avid motorsports fan for over a decade, and he even attended the inaugural Indian Grand Prix in 2011.
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