Red Bull in CRISIS as Verstappen Rethinks His Future!

Over the course of the breathless 2024 F1 season, Max Verstappen managed to hold off the challenge of Lando Norris and Charles Leclerc to secure his fourth straight Drivers' Championship title. It required every ounce of skill he had, and a little luck with Ferrari's failed mid-season upgrade and Lando Norris' poor first-lap performances. He still had to pull off some incredible drives to secure the title, though, with a performance in Sao Paulo being particularly However, 2025 is a new season, and Red Bull know they face a massive task to allow Verstappen to compete for another championship this year. Today, I'll check out just how difficult it's going to be for them, and what the future might hold for Max, so don't go anywhere. 2024 was a pretty wild year for Red Bull Racing. Christian Horner was involved in a scandal to start the year off when he was accused of sending inappropriate messages to a member of his team, something he was later cleared of. That scandal created chaos around the team, though, as Helmut Marko and Jos Verstappen seemed to try and manoeuvre Horner out of the team. Then Adrian Newey decided to make the move to Aston Martin, which raised more questions about what was happening internally at the team. Then the car's performance stopped improving, Checo's form fell off a cliff, and suddenly Red Bull went from being sure-set favourites for both championships to being in a dogfight. Verstappen was eventually a relatively comfortable drivers champion, but he would have been worried, and Red Bull were nowhere near the fight for the constructors. It was a rollercoaster season that the team weren't expecting, and that they won't want to repeat. Despite all that happened, though, the thing that might have made Red Bull most worried was the stories of Max Verstappen potentially leaving Red Bull for Mercedes for the 2025 season. While the Dutch driver ultimately chose to stay loyal to his team, his father, Jos Verstappen, has hinted that it's still possible Max might not see out his entire contract with Red Bull. Jos has a very dim view for what to expect from Red Bull in 2025, saying he doubts that his son will become world champion again this year and clinch his fifth F1 title. Red Bull needs to build a car that is no longer so difficult to drive. If you look at the second half of 2024, you cannot be optimistic. The Red Bull car became more and more unstable as the season went on, which partly contributed to Sergio Perez's downfall and was a big factor in Verstappen starting to struggle compared to his rivals. The four-time world champion will remain with Red Bull in 2025, but father Jos says an early departure from the Milton Keynes-based team has not been ruled out. Anything is possible. He can stay at Red Bull if he sees the point. His goal is to be able to win races. If he feels this is no longer possible at Red Bull, a switch is not out of the question, he explained. Jos, therefore, has a clear message for his son's team. Red Bull has a big task ahead of it in 2025. Max Verstappen also indicated that he doesn't expect to become world champion for the fifth time if his team continues like this. However, he did state that he is confident that the engineers know which areas to work on to solve the balance problems in the F1 car. While Jos's comments could be aimed at 2025, they could also be related to the new regulations. Red Bull will be producing their own engine for the first time ever in 2026. If that first engine is off the pace, then Red Bull could find themselves out of contention for race wins for years to come. But for now, Red Bull and Verstappen will have to wait to see how they match up to the rest of the grid. The immediate worry, though, has to be 2025. Team boss Christian Horner certainly doesn't need to listen to Jos Verstappen to know the issues with his own car. He's been very clear that the team is targeting a more user-friendly Red Bull F1 car after the struggles with the RB20. Although it won seven of the first ten races, and nine overall, the RB20 proved a tricky machine to control as the season went on, as Red Bull continued to develop problems into the car, which Sergio Perez had highlighted back in mid-2023, but Max Verstappen had covered up through sheer skill. The upgrade that was introduced at the 2023 Spanish Grand Prix proved the wrong direction and caused all the problems they've had since then. Horner has now detailed how a further 2024 spec package put the car on a knife edge as he laid out how the new machine would be different. We've got a good understanding of where things weren't as strong. I would say around Imola, we introduced an upgrade that made the car far more peaky in its performance, and it became a very narrow operating window. It's a very similar problem to the one faced by Mercedes throughout the current regulations, where they would find incredible performance at some tracks and then be tenths of a second off at others, though Red Bull didn't suffer quite to the same level as the Silver Arrows. When you get into that window, like the four laps in Austria that were good enough for pole, it was very much in that window, but if you stepped a millimetre either side, it became a problematic car to drive. Max was able to mask it and drive around it, and that's where Checo, particularly this year, struggled. The engineers have been very focused on how you broaden that window, not necessarily adding ultimate performance, but just broadening the window so we're across the different challenges and have a much wider operating window. While that may all sound good, having a plan and executing a plan are two very different challenges. Before I talk about whether it'll be possible for them or not, if you're enjoying the video, I want to catch some more daily F1 news. Make sure to give us a like and subscribe to F1 Reverse. Thanks a lot. So can Red Bull fix the issues that Horner detailed and build a car for the 2025 season which is both easier to set up and also competitive at the front of the field? Well, anything is possible, but it certainly isn't going to be easy for them due to the exceptional circumstances surrounding this season. Ahead of the sweeping regulation changes in 2026, Red Bull team boss Christian Horner says that the team will face a difficult choice over when they'll need to find the right balance between developing the current cars and the next generation. The cars will have completely overhauled engines, which will be housed in a smaller and lighter chassis with moveable aerodynamics on the front and rear wings to help with the greater hybrid component in the engine. Asked how big a nightmare it's going to be juggling development for 2025 not to sacrifice that championship, but then not compromising the plans for 2026, Red Bull team boss Christian Horner claims that things will get particularly difficult next year if a team finds itself in a championship fight. Yeah, it's a tough one because we have the biggest regulation change in probably 50 or 60 years in the history of the sport. So with that in mind, we hate finishing third in the championship. But the additional wind tunnel time that comes with that is, if you like, the only upside in a year where there is such a dramatic regulatory change. Obviously, the earlier you start, the bigger advantage you have. But if there is a tight championship and it goes down to the wire, then that's going to be a tough balancing act for the different teams to choose how they apportion their resources. To add to the difficulty for Red Bull is the number of staff they lost last season. The team building this season's car and the first of the new generation is not the same as it has been previously. Adrian Newey announced his departure from Red Bull on the 1st of May, and after being linked with most of the grid, eventually settled on Aston Martin as his new home. Red Bull confirmed at the beginning of August that their sporting director, Jonathan Wheatley, would leave the Austro-British outfit as he headed to a new challenge, taking up the role of team principal with the Audi F1 project. After last year's Singapore Grand Prix, McLaren announced the hiring of Will Courtney, a Red Bull racing veteran, as their new sporting director. In addition, Vin Dhanani, who worked at Red Bull as vehicle performance manager, left the outfit to join Alpine. Steve Winstanley, who served as chief designer of composites and structures, departed from the Milton Keynes-based outfit to join Williams. Michael Broadhurst, who worked as principal aerodynamicist at Red Bull, moved to Alpine, while chief mechanic Lee Stevenson joined Sauber. Obviously, staff turnover happens everywhere, but with the challenge of the 2026 regs, fixing the 2024 car for 2025, and the pressure of keeping Verstappen, it is another factor which adds to the difficulty of 2025 for Red Bull. Do you think they can manage it all, though? Or are they in for a tough time in 2025? Let me know what you think in the comments down below, and until next time, drive safe and bye for now!