Alex Albon shares what people in the F1 paddock are now saying about Red Bull

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On paper, Red Bull Racing are in a very promising position going into the second half of the 2024 season.

Red Bull have a 42-point lead over nearest rivals McLaren, although that gap has been quickly narrowing over recent races.

In the Drivers’ Championship, Max Verstappen could retire from the next three races and watch his nearest rival Lando Norris win all of those Grand Prix and still hold a slender lead.

However, Red Bull’s advantage over the rest of the grid has significantly diminished this year.

Verstappen and Sergio Perez started the season with three one-two finishes from the first four races.

They’ve not been able to replicate that success since though with Perez in particular in a really difficult position.

Speaking to RacingNews365, Williams driver Alex Albon was speaking about Red Bull’s current campaign.

Verstappen has been left frustrated by Red Bull’s lack of progress in recent months.

The team delivered an update package at the Hungarian Grand Prix but it didn’t have the desired impact and Verstappen hasn’t won a race since Barcelona.

The Dutch Grand Prix will likely see Verstappen return to winning ways – he’s won on his last three visits to Zandvoort – but Albon thinks some aspects of the paddock are talking about how Red Bull have been unable to match their previous levels of development away from the track.

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Alex Albon shares what people are saying about Red Bull this season

Asked about the current champions, Albon said: “Eventually, people were going to catch up.

“I think that’s the great thing about the regulations not changing, is there’s enough time for teams to catch up.

“McLaren, you can just see, their car looks quite different to the other top teams to drive, it just looks a little bit different, and they seem to make it work, which is which is very interesting.

“I’ve seen people talking about [how] the development of the Red Bull cars just slowed down because they’ve got to their peak and they struggle to add more performance to their car.

“I guess you could see, at some point, the limitation – the regulations are limited so you can only do so much.”

READ MORE: Everything you need to know about Williams Racing from team principal to Mercedes relationship

Red Bull dismiss ‘conspiracy’ theories over their 2024 car

Although the summer break forces teams to take two weeks off from working on their cars, Red Bull would have been hard at work thinking about how they could improve the RB20.

Red Bull mechanic Calum Nicholas has dismissed ‘conspiracy’ theories about why Red Bull have failed to kick on this year.

Verstappen has demonstrated his immense talent by continuing to compete with McLaren and Mercedes despite the deficit he may now be facing compared to his rivals.

His pole position lap at Spa in difficult conditions was immense and it was only Verstappen’s ten-place grid penalty that likely denied him a podium finish if not another victory.

It’s not a surprise that Albon and others have noticed the chatter around Red Bull plateauing at this stage of the current ruleset.

They’ve got plans to bring more updates during the second half of the season, but their 2025 car will be particularly interesting especially as it’ll be the first car in two decades that Adrian Newey has had limited influence on.