Red Bull Racing’s 2025 Formula 1 campaign has unfolded as a season of hard knocks, dashed expectations, and a relentless search for answers. For a team that dominated the grid in recent years, the current run has been nothing short of a reality check. Max Verstappen’s once-vaulting hopes of a fifth consecutive drivers’ championship have evaporated, and the team’s title ambitions were effectively extinguished well before the summer break. The statistics are stark: Red Bull has now gone seven consecutive races without a podium — a drought they haven’t experienced in a decade.
It’s not just the absence of silverware that stings. The issues plaguing Red Bull’s second car, driven by Yuki Tsunoda, have been persistent and, at times, crippling. The RB21, which was supposed to keep Red Bull at the front of the pack, has instead been a source of frustration and confusion. For the past 18 months, every new upgrade has seemed to dig the team deeper into a technical hole, with little sign of daylight as the 2025 season barrels toward its final ten races.
Yet, amid the turbulence, there’s a measure of stability: Max Verstappen has confirmed he will remain with Red Bull for 2026. The Dutch superstar’s decision brings a sigh of relief to Red Bull’s faithful, especially as speculation in the driver market had reached a fever pitch earlier in the year. But Verstappen’s commitment comes with a bold caveat. Helmut Marko, Red Bull’s influential advisor, has promised Verstappen that if he dislikes the sweeping new regulations set for 2026, he’s free to walk away from the sport entirely. That’s a rare level of leverage for any driver and underscores just how vital Verstappen is to the team’s future.
The 2025 campaign hasn’t been without its moments of brilliance for Verstappen. He’s managed to keep hold of a unique record: winning at least one sprint race every year since the format’s introduction in 2021. In fact, his sprint victory in Belgium this year — where he overtook Oscar Piastri on the opening lap and never looked back — ensured he remains the undisputed king of sprints, now with twelve career sprint wins. That’s more than half the total sprint races ever held, with Valtteri Bottas, Lando Norris, and Oscar Piastri tied for second place at just two wins apiece.
Verstappen’s other highlights this season include victories at the Japanese Grand Prix and the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix at Imola. These wins, however, have been rare bright spots in an otherwise challenging year. The Red Bull driver currently sits third in the championship standings, trailing Oscar Piastri by a daunting 97 points and Lando Norris by 88. George Russell, fresh off a third-place finish in Hungary, is now breathing down Verstappen’s neck — just 15 points adrift. The title fight, at least for Verstappen, appears to be a distant prospect.
Red Bull’s struggles have been compounded by strategic missteps. The 2025 Spanish Grand Prix stands out as a particularly painful example. According to Jeroen Bleekemolen, the team’s strategy was “totally” wrong and left Verstappen compromised. “Yeah, didn’t have anything else available at the time,” Bleekemolen remarked. “[There] was also a bit of confusion, I think, between him and the team. Yeah it was totally the wrong tyre. And then, of course, his frustration came out, which ultimately resulted in a collision with Russell and time penalty. That’s also Max and that’s also Verstappen. I don’t even have to say that’s Max, that’s Max and Jos and that is Verstappen. That’s also nice, isn’t it, that at some point you reach a point where you’ve had enough.”
Verstappen’s visible frustration in Spain, culminating in a collision with George Russell and a subsequent time penalty, was emblematic of a season where little has gone to plan. After qualifying for the Hungarian Grand Prix, Verstappen was candidly pessimistic about his prospects, stating he didn’t expect to win another race under normal conditions this year. For a driver who has made winning look routine, such an admission is telling.
The problems haven’t been limited to Verstappen’s side of the garage. Yuki Tsunoda’s experience in the second Red Bull has been even more fraught. The car has been described as “mostly undriveable” for much of the season, a situation that leaves Red Bull vulnerable not only in the drivers’ standings but also in the constructors’ championship. With ten races remaining and the RB21 set to become little more than a museum piece, the team faces a mammoth task to salvage pride and momentum before the 2026 rule changes turn the sport on its head.
Red Bull’s technical department, once lauded for its relentless innovation, now finds itself under intense scrutiny. For a year and a half, upgrades have failed to deliver meaningful progress. The gap to the front-runners has widened, and the team’s inability to provide Verstappen with a dependable teammate has only hampered their strategic options. The importance of a strong second car — not just for constructors’ points, but for tactical flexibility on race day — has never been clearer.
Looking ahead, Red Bull’s challenge is twofold. First, they must find a competent solution for their second driver, ensuring Verstappen isn’t left to shoulder the burden alone. Second, they need to regroup and refocus their technical efforts ahead of the 2026 regulations. The new rules promise to shake up the competitive order, and Red Bull can ill afford another season mired in underperformance. The stakes are high: if Verstappen isn’t satisfied with the new era, Marko’s promise means he could walk away, leaving Red Bull with a gaping void at the heart of their operation.
For now, the action is still very much ongoing. Verstappen’s loyal fans cling to the hope that he can conjure more magic before the season’s end, even as the odds grow longer with each passing race. Red Bull, meanwhile, are left to ponder what went wrong — and what must change — to reclaim their place at the pinnacle of Formula 1. With ten races to go and no guarantees, the final chapters of 2025 promise to be as dramatic as anything the sport has seen in years.
As the paddock braces for the next round, all eyes remain on Verstappen and Red Bull. Can they find redemption before the curtain falls on this turbulent season? The coming months will tell, but one thing is certain: the story of Red Bull’s 2025 campaign is far from over.
