Red Bull accused of ‘ignoring warnings’ about ‘undriveable’ F1 car

Red Bull “ignored the warnings” that their 2025 F1 car was “undriveable”, according to Sky Sports commentator David Croft.

Max Verstappen’s hopes of winning a fifth successive F1 world title appear to be in tatters following the British Grand Prix, with the Dutchman trailing McLaren’s Oscar Piastri by 69 points.

Red Bull have fallen to fourth place in the constructors’ championship, a whopping 288 points behind leaders McLaren, amid ongoing woes affecting the balance and handling of their RB21.

Verstappen has managed to win two races this year despite the problems affecting Red Bull’s latest F1 challenger, but teammate Yuki Tsunoda has struggled to get to grips with the car since coming in to replace the underperforming Liam Lawson just three rounds into the campaign.

Croft revealed he has been informed that Red Bull ignored concerns about the design of their 2025 car.

"Fair play to Max. He had the spin, he got his head down, and he salvaged a fifth-place finish from that race, and was still making progress at the end," Croft told the Sky Sports F1 podcast.

"Yuki - I don't know where we go with Yuki on this one. He's still struggling with the car. It's been a lot of races now. He'll be there 'til the end of the season. We all want to see him do so much better.

"But it was told to me at the British Grand Prix that Red Bull have basically designed a car that is the fastest possible car that the data could possibly suggest, but it's undriveable. And they were warned about it, in terms of the design team, but they ignored the warnings.

"Well, it's kind of coming home to roost a little bit. And maybe - maybe they're missing Adrian Newey an awful lot more than Christian Horner said they would or ever thought they would.”

Red Bull lost legendary F1 car designer Adrian Newey to rivals Aston Martin and their dramatic downturn in form has coincided with the Briton’s exit.

Long-serving team principal Christian Horner was sacked last week by Red Bull after 20 years in charge of the Milton Keynes side.

What does this mean for Verstappen’s future?

Verstappen’s future remains uncertain amid Red Bull’s competitive woes, with links to Mercedes intensifying in recent weeks.

The Dutchman is contracted to Red Bull until the end of 2028 but there are understood to be clauses in his deal that would allow him to leave at the end of the campaign if certain performance conditions are not met.

Speaking about Red Bull’s problems after recovering from a spin to finish fifth at a chaotic, rain-affected British Grand Prix, Verstappen said: “If everyone knew what they had to do, then everyone [would be] winning races, or at least everyone had a chance of winning. And in F1, unfortunately, that’s not the case. Of course, we’re not where we want to be, but we’re still fighting for podiums.

“I think we are trying to find more performance in the car, but also, of course, last year we were a bit hurt with our balance issues that we had with the car. So we also had to first understand what was going on there, and for sure, that has also hurt probably a little bit, too, the future development of the car during this year.

“But we’re still trying everything we can to be as competitive as we can be. Now, is that going to be McLaren level? Maybe not. Probably not. That’s how F1 goes for you. Sometimes you have dominant years, good years where you can win a lot. Sometimes, maybe not. Or not at all.”