Disastrous start
The new technical rules introduced this season have had a strong impact on Red Bull and its drivers, starting with Max Verstappen. Dissatisfied with the results and the characteristics of the new cars, the Dutchman even went as far as threatening to retire from Formula 1, with teammate Isack Hadjar, another arrival at Milton Keynes after his experience in Racing Bulls, who in turn expressed very negative judgments on the RB22, particularly after the Japanese Grand Prix. Suzuka, moreover, was the third race of this championship, ending with only Verstappen in the points, but still in 8th place. If we add to this the negative results of the four-time world champion and Hadjar in the previous events, the Anglo-Austrian team now occupies sixth position in the Constructors’ standings, tied with Alpine at 16 points.
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A worse start
It is necessary to go back eleven years, to 2015, to remember when Red Bull did worse than this in Formula 1 after the first three GPs, in a season in which the Sprint race had not yet entered the world championship (in the only one held this year in China, both Verstappen and Hadjar did not obtain any points). Following the departure of Sebastian Vettel, who moved to Ferrari after his four world titles won with Red Bull, the team replaced the German with Daniil Kvyat, promoted after his first season in F1 with Toro Rosso (now renamed Racing Bulls).
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The Russian driver’s debut in Australia, however, turned into a sporting nightmare: on the formation lap, in fact, he had to deal with a gearbox problem, retiring even before the start. His teammate, Daniel Ricciardo, finished in front of his home crowd in 6th place, in what would turn out to be the best result of the first three races of that championship. First in Malaysia and then in China, the then #3 obtained a 10th and a 9th place respectively, in both cases at the bottom of the points zone. In Sepang, moreover, Ricciardo finished right behind Kvyat, who had to retire once again in China, in that case due to an engine failure just at a time when he was occupying the points zone. After the race in Shanghai, Red Bull found itself in fifth position in the world championship, with only 13 points. During the season, however, the Milton Keynes-based team managed to recover, albeit without any victories. While Ricciardo stood on the podium on two occasions, Kvyat took 2nd place in Hungary right ahead of the Australian. The world championship ended with Red Bull in fourth position with 187 points, -70 from Williams (third) and -516 from world champion Mercedes, which failed to win in only three races of the nineteen on the calendar.
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