Red Bull have introduced upgrades to their championship-leading RB20 at Imola. The Bulls are looking to get back to winning ways after Lando Norris beat them in Miami last time out.
While he finished runner-up, Max Verstappen was still able to extend his advantage at the top of the drivers’ standings. He’s 33 points clear of teammate Sergio Perez, and 38 ahead of his nearest external challenger in Charles Leclerc.
Over in the constructors’, Red Bull retain a healthy but not insurmountable 52-point edge over Ferrari. Fred Vasseur is hoping to see a big step forward this weekend, potentially up to three tenths based on an estimate from Maranello staff.
Helmut Marko nonetheless struck a bullish tone ahead of the race. He insisted he wasn’t ‘worried’ about the increased threat of Norris, particularly because Red Bull had new parts in the pipeline.
This is already the RB20’s second upgrade of the year after some initial tweaks in Japan. The team have continued to be aggressive in their development push despite their recent dominance.
The question is how much more time they can find. Adrian Newey recently admitted they were ‘struggling’ to extract gains from a concept that Ferrari have partly copied with their new-look car.
Red Bull man Paul Monaghan unhappy with photographers at Imola
Inevitably, the photographers in the Imola pitlane were surrounding the Red Bull to try and get detailed pictures of the new parts. Rival teams will also have their cameras firmly pointed at the car this weekend.
Chief engineer Paul Monaghan has done his best to maintain a degree of secrecy. According to Karun Chandhok, he was becoming ‘irate’ as he tried to prevent too many photos from being taken.
Speaking live on Sky Sports F1, he said: “They’re obviously quite sensitive about the new bits they’ve got on their car.
“We were standing in the pitlane earlier today and their head of engineering Paul Monaghan was getting quite irate with some of the cameras that were getting very up and close personal with this Red Bull. He was trying to ward them off and wave them away.”
Red Bull under pressure to strike back as internal unrest rumbles on
While Red Bull have remained the class of the field on the race track this year, there has been instability off it. Earlier this month, they confirmed that chief designer Newey would be leaving the team in early 2025.
Christian Horner and co. will no doubt paint it as an entirely amicable parting of ways, but that’s not strictly true. Newey has been unhappy with the manner in which Horner has downplayed his influence.
Since the Newey announcement, there have been reports that further Red Bull employees are considering their futures. Sporting director Jonathan Wheatley could be the next to move on.
And many are wondering what this will mean for Verstappen. While the Dutchman himself hasn’t kicked up much of a public fuss lately, his father warned that the team is at risk of ‘falling apart’.
Privately, he’s been holding talks with Mercedes about a potential move away. There’s ‘chatter in the paddock’ that he could leave before the end of 2026.
Verstappen’s contract includes an exit clause that would be triggered by the departure of executive director Marko. It’s significant, then, that there’s underlying tension between Horner and the Austrian.
With all this happening in the background, Red Bull need to demonstrate that they have maintained total focus. The Miami GP weekend was a little scruffy by their impeccable standards, but they’ll be determined to reassert themselves with an ominous marker at Imola.
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