How Red Bull can be even better in F1 2022

So far this millennium, there have been three truly great Formula 1 team dynasties. Respected apologies must go to Renault (now Alpine) and McLaren, but in terms of sheer title numbers, they don’t get anywhere near Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull.

As 2021 concludes, the Black Arrows team, which may well be back to its traditional silver livery for next year, has seven world title doubles (plus one more drivers’ and constructors’ crowns each as Brawn GP, and this years’ constructors’). Ferrari has the six drivers’ and six constructors’ it took in nine seasons up to 2008, five as doubles, after which the lasting impact of the Michael Schumacher/Jean Todt/Ross Brawn super squad began to wane.

And then there’s Red Bull. Adding in Max Verstappen’s 2021 drivers’ title, it has secured five of those and four constructors’ – all of the latter haul coming as part of doubles in the Sebastian Vettel era at the start of the last decade.

Red Bull has the youngest heritage of the three squads, given Mercedes’ roots can be traced all the way back to Tyrrell. Ferrari, of course, is the only ever-present competitor in the F1 world championship. But the former Stewart and Jaguar squad has achieved tremendous success since its Red Bull rebrand ahead of the 2005 season.

It took six years to win a title at the end of 2010, beaten by Mercedes’ five completed seasons from its return as an F1 entrant through to Lewis Hamilton’s first with his current team in 2014. But Red Bull did so through a less considerable regulation overhaul than the V8-V6 turbo switch and indeed it was Brawn that beat Red Bull to the critical double diffuser innovation of the downforce-slashing 2009 rules reset.

And then there’s its company lineage. “We're just an ‘energy drinks company’ going racing,” team boss Christian Horner said ahead of the Abu Dhabi season finale just gone, referring to Hamilton’s comments a decade earlier when he had been asked if he would one day entertain a Red Bull switch.

The scale of Red Bull's achievement in beating the Mercedes juggernaut for the first time in the turbo hybrid era shouldn't be underestimated

Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images

The team is extremely well funded via overall Red Bull boss Dietrich Mateschitz, but considering the success of its previous F1 guises and the very real impact of heritage DNA in motorsport projects, what Red Bull has achieved in F1 is truly remarkable. It is not a garagista squad, but a marketing behemoth – that can therefore claim a truly unique kind of F1 success story. And, for that, fair play to the team.

Add in its junior programme, which respected sports writer Richard Williams recently described in The Guardian as “the most unsparingly effective scheme of its kind since the Spartans left male babies out on a hillside to see which of them would survive to be trained as warriors”, and Red Bull’s contribution to F1 increases. Its scheme is utterly ruthless, but in 2022, eight of the 20 drivers will have raced for Red Bull or its AlphaTauri sister squad – an impressive reach.

Perez improved in a what remained a difficult package, even if rear end instability was much better this season, but for 2022 Red Bull cannot afford to have one of its cars regularly removed from the lead fight by a poor qualifying showing

There’s no doubt that Red Bull needed the off-season rule tweaks that so hampered the low-raked Mercedes to get on terms with its rival in car performance. But it succeeded in taming the recalcitrant excesses of the RB16 with the RB16B and then steadily harnessed and improved its package to enable Verstappen’s triumph.

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It squandered its advantage to Mercedes at times, with Hamilton’s team also developing and fettling its way into much closer competition than at the start of 2021, but Red Bull did what no team has done since the turbo hybrid era began – it took a title from Mercedes. And that deserves huge praise.

But, of course, even the best can be better – that’s the whole mantra Toto Wolff has instilled at Mercedes. So, where might Red Bull find gains for 2022?

Off track, the team’s public relations messaging has been baffling at times. Considering Red Bull’s considerable coffers, it was pretty disingenuous for Horner to claim this year’s title fight was “David v Goliath”.

Following the Silverstone crash, Red Bull motorsport advisor Helmut Marko calling for Hamilton to face a race ban was rather jaw-dropping considering the stewards decreed he was only “predominantly” to blame. Backing your driver and fostering determination through ‘us-against-the-world’ motivation is understandable, but it’s also risky.

Marko's incendiary comments after the Silverstone crash fostered a siege mentality

Photo by: Jerry Andre / Motorsport Images

On track, if Verstappen can produce moves such as on the opening lap in Abu Dhabi and not as he did at the second start in Jeddah, plus tone down the needlessly aggressive defending he produced in Brazil and Saudi Arabia, his journey to being F1’s best overall driver will be complete.

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Sergio Perez must get closer to Verstappen’s level next year. He improved in a what remained a difficult package, even if rear end instability was much better this season, but for 2022 Red Bull cannot afford to have one of its cars regularly removed from the lead fight by a poor qualifying showing. That will be particularly important if George Russell adapts to his new home at Mercedes as quickly and as well as many expect. And this is assuming the status quo at the front of the grid holds, which is hard to predict in a massive regulation overhaul.

And this is a big consideration for Red Bull’s future. How well it does in 2022 may well already be determined. If it has spent too many resources on narrowly winning Verstappen his first title, there is a big danger he may not win again for several more years if critical focus on the 2022 challenger has been lost and Red Bull therefore starts the new era off the pace. That said, a reverse scenario may well come to pass and considering Verstappen’s comments that he hopes “we can do this for 10 or 15 years together” then it may all be worth it.

“The constructors’ is where the money is,” says Horner. “But the drivers’ obviously has the popularity, and it has the prestige. I don't think there's a single employee within our business that would have traded the first place in the constructors for this drivers' championship.”

People can change their minds, sports people tend to do so regularly, but there is no doubt Red Bull is a team that loves its star, and he loves it right back. That’s solid ground for further success.

Verstappen and Red Bull's relationship has been solidified by winning a first world title together

Photo by: Getty Images / Red Bull Content Pool