Red Bull boss Christian Horner pinpoints the exact timeline of the origin of the team’s struggles

Reigning champions Red Bull Racing have conceded the championship lead to their rivals McLaren following the Azerbaijan Grand Prix. Team Principal Christian Horner has now identified the timeline for the team's struggles this year.

After winning both the drivers' and constructors' titles in the most dominant way in the 2023 season, Red Bull Racing was looking forward to continuing its winning streak this year as well. However, with rivals such as McLaren, Ferrari, and Mercedes-AMG bringing in crucial upgrades, the Austrian outfit began losing its unbeatable charm.

The team, along with both drivers Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez, struggled with the pace of the RB20 race car. Although the squad did implement a major update to the car, they soon had to revert to the previous iteration due to bad aero effects. Now, after carefully studying the data available, Christian Horner has been able to figure out the root of their troubles this season.

Horner and Red Bull chief Helmut Marko recently discussed this issue with the German publication Auto Motor und Sport.

"We traced the development history and it turned out that the first mistake had already happened to us with an underbody upgrade in Barcelona in 2023. That was also the Grand Prix, from which Checo started to have his problems with the car. We just didn't take it so seriously because Max kept winning," Horner said.

The same was shared on X by an F1 fan page. Here's a look at the post, captioned,

"⚠️ | Christian Horner on the origins of Red Bull's Struggles"

Marko also shared his thoughts, saying.

"We took a really wrong turn in Imola this year."

With seven more races to go this season, Red Bull Racing will likely be looking at rectifying the problem soon to regain the championship lead.

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"Very, very disappointing," - Red Bull Racing's Team Principal Christian Horner felt Sergio Perez deserved a podium finish at Baku

The battle for the final podium position between Red Bull Racing's Sergio Perez and Ferrari's Carlos Sainz ended in an agonizing crash on lap 50 of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix. With just one lap remaining in the race, Team Principal Christian Horner believed the Mexican racer deserved the podium finish in Baku.

Perez appeared to be comfortably cruising towards a third-place finish throughout the race. However, as Ferrari's Charles Leclerc began to slow down due to worn-out tires, Pérez attempted a daring overtake on the start/finish straight with DRS. The Monegasque racer somehow managed to retake the position on turn one.

Recognizing the opportunity, Sainz also attempted to overtake Pérez. This set up a thrilling battle between the two drivers through turn 2, which unfortunately concluded in a crash.

Horner expressed his opinion during a post-race media interaction with Sky Sports F1.

"Deserved a lot more. He should’ve at the very least been on the podium today. Very, very disappointing. It’s destroyed the race for Checo today. It’s cost us a lot of damage and obviously vital points in the constructors’ championship," he said.

Despite the DNF, the revised set-up on the RB20 appears to have been more effective for Perez than Max Verstappen on the streets of Baku.