Red Bull’s ‘big loss’ that is impacting them in title battle with McLaren

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After starting the season with a lead of over 100 points, Red Bull now faces the prospect of losing the Formula 1 Constructors’ Championship to McLaren during the final races of the season.

Even though their season started well with four wins in the first five races, Red Bull has trailed off as their rivals have added performance to their cars.

McLaren is now eight points behind them in the battle for the Constructors’ title, as they look to secure their first since the 1998 season. It comes after Red Bull enjoyed a dominant run of victories with the RB19, which became one of the most successful cars ever in F1 after winning 21 out of 22 races.

Now the team faces a struggle after the upgrades they made to the RB20 did not yield the performance gains they hoped, while Red Bull is also missing the technical expertise of Adrian Newey trackside.

Several members of Red Bull’s inner success circle are also set to leave the team, but journalist Michael Schmidt believes the biggest loss came last year for the team when speaking on the Formel Schmidt podcast.

Rob Marshall is ‘biggest loss’ for Red Bull

McLaren made a major signing last year when it poached Rob Marshall away from Red Bull. The British engineer officially moved into the role of chief designer in January this year, and his impact has been instant.

Marshall was part of the design team that led Red Bull to their title success in the last decade, and former F1 team principal Otmar Szafnauer believes he took a lot of his ‘secret sauce’ to McLaren.

His area of expertise has become invaluable, according to Schmidt, who believes that is part of the reason why McLaren has now emerged as the front-runner to beat.

“The loss of Rob Marshall is almost worse than that or Newey. He doesn’t have as much effect now, even if you can say the last race where Newey was in Miami it all went downhill. He could certainly be of help finding the setup of the car and ironing out mistakes,” said Schmidt.

“But Rob Marshall hurt them the most. He was the chief designer, he knew everything about the car and is an expert in suspension. Helmut Marko always says when you look at the rear suspension of McLaren its a copy of ours from last year so it was really a big loss.”

McLaren spot ‘worrying problems’ with key car component in Monza

Every update that McLaren has made to their car has made them significantly faster, while Red Bull and Ferrari have added performance but have not reached their targets.

The team is wary of adding more upgrades to their car in the final nine races, given how delicate the balance is between getting them right and it impacting other areas.

READ MORE: Everything you need to know about McLaren F1 Team from team principal to engine

McLaren has already spotted ‘worrying problems’ with its floor developments at Monza, so the likelihood of them adding new parts in the next few races could be slim.

Regardless of their problems, Nico Rosberg believes McLaren will beat Red Bull to the Constructors’ Championship due to their current problems being a lot harder to solve behind the scenes.