Oracle Red Bull Racing celebrated 20 years in Formula 1 in 2024 fresh off an excellent 2023 season, in which the team won 21 out of 22 races, with 19 coming from three-time world champion Max Verstappen. The team also achieved their first 1-2 finish in the Driver Standings after Sergio Perez secured the sub championship at the Las Vegas Grand Prix near the end of the season, beating out Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton to make Perez and Verstappen the most successful driver pairing in Red Bull Racing history.
Red Bull launched their 2024 contender, the RB20, on Feb. 15 and everyone immediately zeroed in on the sidepods. Instead of relying on their dominant 2023 design, Global Chief Technical Officer Adrian Newey decided to innovate to stay ahead of the competition, all of which would be following in their footsteps to try and catch up. The new minimalistic sidepods, referred to as zeropods, are very similar to previous designs from Mercedes and proved ineffective for that particular team. If Newey manages to fix their concept, which will be determined when the season begins, it will be another humiliation dealt unto their rival by the championship-winning team.
The team’s priority is to defend their position in the Constructor Standings and give Verstappen his fourth consecutive world championship. Perez complimented the “aggressive” redesign and is proud of his team for pushing boundaries instead of staying stagnant as other teams rush to copy them. The RB20’s livery, in typical Red Bull fashion, looks exactly the same as last season’s, leaving fans disappointed but not surprised. It’s not beautiful like a Ferrari or eye-catching like the new Visa Cash App RB, but it is iconic in its own way. At least it’s not just exposed carbon fiber and as long as the car is fast and consistent, it doesn’t matter if they didn’t touch the paint job.
It’s expected for Red Bull and Verstappen to once again dominate the field, as their closest competitors Mercedes and Ferrari were too far behind in 2023 to make any miraculous improvements in just half a year. That said, racing fans would be thrilled to see the world champion be challenged more often and turn to his teammate for a chance to see a championship battle. Perez’s contract with Red Bull ends after the 2024 season and a renewal has not yet been announced, with detractors clamoring for his replacement after a difficult 2023 season.
Despite securing the vice championship and winning two races, Perez finished the year with less than half of Verstappen’s points, struggling through a roller coaster of a season that saw inconsistent, but always point-scoring results that were sufficient enough to keep him ahead of the rest of the grid. If the RB20 performs as everyone expects it to and if Verstappen has not somehow forgotten how to drive, the real interest for Red Bull fans this season will be in Perez’s performance and the status of his contract.
