How Red Bull fell short of challenging for the 2020 F1 title

This was supposed to be the Formula 1 season when Red Bull gave Mercedes a run for its money. Instead, the next-best team fell short - until the final race of 2020 in Abu Dhabi

Red Bull bounded into the 2020 Formula 1 season full of confidence that it was going to fight for the world championship.

A stable set of regulations meant there would be no curve balls like in 2019, when new front-wing rules hindered its prospects with the RB15. There was consistency of engine manufacturer, with Honda hoping to build on the momentum that had delivered the partnership three wins over the previous season. And in Max Verstappen, the team had a maturing superstar who was ready to take on the challenge of becoming a thorn in the side of Lewis Hamilton.

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Author Jonathan Noble

Jonathan Noble is Motorsport.com’s Formula 1 editor. Having graduated from University of Sussex Jonathan worked for sports news agency Collings Sports reporting on F1, F3, touring cars and other sports, with articles appearing in The Daily Telegraph, The Independent, Reuters, Autosport and other publications. In 1999 he moved to Haymarket Publishing to become a senior editor at Autosport Special Projects, and one year later he became Autosport’s grand prix editor. In 2015 he moved to Motorsport Network, becoming the F1 editor for Motorsport.com. He is also a member of the Guild of Motoring Writers, and sits on the FIA Media Council.

Jonathan has won multiple awards for journalism - in 1991 he was the winner of the Guild of Motoring Writers’ Sir William Lyons’ Award for young journalists, in 2010 he was awarded the Outstanding Individual accolade for consumer journalism in the Haymarket wards, in 2011 he won Haymarket’s Scoop of the Year, and in 2018 he was awarded a prestigious Medaglia d’Oro at the Lorenzo Bandini Awards for his contribution to F1 journalism.