The consequence of failing to properly deal with a major problem that has plagued Red Bull for years is now starting to rear its ugly head for the F1 constructors' champions.
Since 2021, Red Bull and Max Verstappen have hardly broken a sweat as their dominance of the sport showed no signs of relenting.
In 2023, only Carlos Sainz (Singapore) stopped the team from making it a clean sweep of victories at every single race track in the calendar year.
Sergio Perez picked up two wins at Jeddah and Baku, with Verstappen mopping up the rest.
Max Verstappen won all but three races in 2023Carlos Sainz and Sergio Perez were the only other two drivers to claim victory
However, despite another blistering start to 2024, the rest of the F1 grid have pulled Red Bull back into their sights with the likes of McLaren and Mercedes both preventing the reigning champs from running away with things.
It would still be hard to look past Verstappen in his pursuit of a fourth successive drivers' title, but in the battle for supremacy in the constructors' standings, Perez's poor performances have made that anyone's game.
And according to Sky Sports' Bernie Collins, this is an issue that Red Bull only have themselves to blame for failing to get a proper handle on.
"When we look at the history: 2021, the first championship that Max won, 2022 the first championship that Red Bull won, we’re now in year three of Red Bull potentially winning world championships," she told the Sky Sports F1 podcast.
Sky Sports pundit Bernie Collins
"In none of those years have they really tried to figure out getting this second driver – you think it’s been Checo all that time – up to speed.
"They’ve always relied on the car being fast enough that Verstappen can just drive off into the sunset.
"So they’ve had three years to get on top of this. This is now year three that they could have been on top of getting the team working well together and making sure both guys are scoring points, which the others have been doing.
Sergio Perez has failed to keep pace with Max Verstappen this year
"This isn’t a new problem," she continued. "It’s new in the fact that they don’t have the advantage [they once had], but anyone at Red Bull that didn’t see the disadvantage feeding away, as regulations remain stable and they’ve got less wind tunnel time and all these things.
"There should have been potentially more foresight to get that car and driver working well, how do they get the best out of that combination?
"Nobody in that second seat at Red Bull since Verstappen’s been in seat one have been really fit to step up to the mark."
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