Have Red Bull taken a step backwards? Toto Wolff weighs in after ‘downgrade’ spat
🌌Toto Wolff gives his verdict on whether Red Bull have taken a recent step b♑ack in performance.
Mercedes boss Toto Wolff has weighed in on Red Bull’s recent F1 performance and believes the gap between the top four teams is “sꦆhrinking”.
ဣRed Bull returned to winning ways at the Canadian Grand Prix but endured a tricky weekend in Montreal, which came after their worst performance of the 2024 season so far at the Moꦫnaco Grand Prix.
The reigning world champions were well off the pace in Monaco as their RB20 car was hampered by kerb-riding🥂 and bump issues, which they also struggled with, to a 🍸lesser extent, in Canada.
Red Bull’s issues prompted Mercede🌊s technical director James Allison to suggest that a recent upgrade package could be delivering a “downgrade” in performan🐲ce.
“It does look as if their upgrade was a downgrade,” Allison said. "So, fingers cross🌠ed that would really mess them up.
"That [an upgrade not working] makes life hard, because the moment you stop 💦trusting your tools, you have to backtrack, and you lose loads of time. Time is your biggest friend, losing it is your worst enemy.”
Allison’s claim was quickly shot down by Red Bull team principal Chri𒀰stian Horner, who firedﷺ back: "Even with our downgrade, we managed to beat their upgrade. It was a rewarding race to win.”
Asked wheth🗹er he thinks Red Bull have taken a step bac꧟k in recent races, Wolff told Sky Sports F1: “The last few races were more difficult for them [Red Bull]. I think everybody has been taking good steps forward.
“There were two or three🐻 teams that cou🅰ld have potentially won the race [in Canada], maybe us not quite.
“I don’t know whether 🗹they’ve [Red Bull] taken a step backward. The most important thing is it [the gap] is shrinking.”
However, Wolff anticipates Red Bull will be competitive at the upcoming run of European races, starting with ♐next week’s Spanish 🐽Grand Prix at Barcelona.
“Maybe Barcelona will be interesting, whether they are strong there,” Wolಞff said.
“Austria is ♈their♉ territory. McLaren was strong there last year when they had their comeback. That’s never a good one for us.
“You can’t discount Max and the Red Bulls, they are still t💙he benchmꦰark, they are right up there.
“But McLaren has ꦕmade hu🦹ge steps, and don’t forget Ferrari, they were not visible [in Canada], but two weeks ago [in Monaco] they were the benchmark.
“That’s four teams that are competitive now.”
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