In the last Australian GP at the Albert Park Circuit, the RB18 prevented Red Bull´s Max Verstappen from claiming a second place that was virtually his. Two abandonments in the first three races of the season; that is the reigning champion’s poor balance after Melbourne. He is now 46 points behind the leader, the unbeatable Charles Leclerc (Ferrari).

The situation is extremely worrying, even more so considering that his car did not let him down once during the 2021 season. Fully aware of his dire situation, the Dutchman is understandably disappointed and frustrated. So much so that, with a mixture of resignation and outrage, he has already ruled himself out of the title fight. 

“I have no reason to believe in the championship right now. Obviously, is a long season, there are still 20 races left, but at this stage, I think we need 45 races in order to have another chance. We’re already miles behind. 46 points…we need to be faster and more reliable. I don’t even want to think about the championship fight at the moment”. – Verstappen reflected on his current situation-. 

“It’s very frustrating. I don’t know what happened. I had a sign that it would be difficult to finish before the start. But you try not to think about it during the race, you just have to stay focused”. -The defending champion said about his sensations with the car before the start of the Australian battle. 

“Of course, I’m frustrated, but I can’t do anything. The car just isn’t good enough looking at reliability or balance… I’m surprised we’re not on the right track. There doesn’t seem to be a clear fix either, so we have a lot of work to do. Ferrari is much better than us, in many areas“. – He concluded -. 

The Formula One current monarch is right. It is hard to remember such a tortuous World Championship start for a defending champion. For a similar case, you have to go back to 2018 with Lewis Hamilton and  Mercedes. 

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What is wrong with Red Bull?  

The rest of the Red Bull team, also weighed down by the serious technical issues, is not doing much better than its star driver. At the heart of their crisis is the alarming unreliability of the RB18. The main fault seems to come from the fuel system.

In Bahrain, a vacuum in the fuel pump inside the tank was the culprit for the retirement of both the blue cars. In Australia, on the other hand, the abandonment was the result of a fuel leak, outside the tank. 

Apparently, the radical design of the single-seater leaves very little room for the fuel system and this, in turn, might make its different elements more prone to breaking down. On top of that is the poor adaptation of the Honda combustion chamber to the new biofuel, which, as is the case in other teams carrying Honda engines, would be compromising the performance of the RB18. 

Worst of all, however, is the fact that that is not the only weakness of the blue car. The rapid degradation of its tyres and its 7 to 10 kilograms extra weight are also letting the team down. Just the latter could be responsible for up to three-tenths of a second disadvantage compared to the F1-75. 

Everything points out to a defect in the Honda engines, a possibility that makes the crisis even more wide-ranging and problematic. Teammate Checo Pérez, for instance, broke down in Bahrain, completing an astonishing double retirement for the Austrian force in Losail. 

The Alpha Tauri cars, which also use the Japanese engines, have suffered similar contingencies with Pierre Gasly‘s AT02 catching fire in Losail and teammate Yuki Tsunoda not even being able to start in Saudi Arabia. In all honesty, in the face of such a string of unresolved issues, thinking about the drivers’ or the teams’ titles at the moment is out of the question. 

Images of Max Verstappen: Red Bull Racing.