One of the biggest unknowns about the 2024 Formula 1 season is how Red Bull went from crushing the opposition up to the Chinese GP to being on the backfoot since Miami.
Max Verstappen’s victory in Shanghai, his fourth out of five races at the start of this season, came with nearly identical 13-second margins at the front in that weekend’s sprint and main grand prix. The world champion had been pretty much unchallenged up to that point (and would likely have won Australia were it not for his brake problem) and there had been little indication from outside that the RB20 was anything but well clear of the opposition.
