Are Red Bull now the most successful F1 team ever – and how long can this dominance last?

At the moment it seems a grand prix does not go by without Red Bull – and their peerless linchpin Max Verstappen – setting milestones and breaking records. Such is their dominance in Formula One right now, winning 18 of the last 19 races, the double-symphony of the Dutch and Austrian national anthems on the podium is as much a regularity these days as five red lights going out to start the race.

But Canada really did take the biscuit. Red Bull’s 100th race victory; Max Verstappen’s 41st grand prix win, equalling Ayrton Senna’s record; Verstappen brought up 250 consecutive laps led, dating back to Miami six weeks ago; Red Bull’s 10th consecutive victory, including Abu Dhabi at the end of last year.

It was notable who was on the podium, too, celebrating Verstappen’s 20th win in his last 27 races. Adrian Newey, Red Bull’s mastermind-in-chief, was unofficially celebrating his 200th F1 race win involvement, dating back to his first in Mexico 32 years ago. The man extolled, appropriately, with engineering the team’s latest RB missile on four wheels.

By this season’s standards, Verstappen’s win in Montreal was far from a cruise. Qualifying on Saturday was tricky in wet-dry-wet conditions. But Max prevailed. An early safety car bunched the pack up on Sunday. But Max prevailed. Tyre wear was an issue in the cockpit with Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton chasing; not on the pit wall who again oozed perfectibility. Again, Max prevailed.

Victory No 100 is a significant landmark for the team. An “incredible achievement”, as Christian Horner put it, becoming the fifth team to reach such a figure. When he spearheaded Red Bull’s involvement by taking over Jaguar in 2004, surely even he could not have forecasted such periods of dominance, up against the historic titans of world motorsport.

Red Bull have won 28.1 per cent of all the races they’ve entered in the sport as they hit a century. By way of comparison, Ferrari have won 242 races in 1,060 – a hit rate of 22.8 per cent. McLaren’s is lower at 19.6 per cent; that of Williams fewer still at 14.4 per cent.

But Mercedes at 44.8 per cent beat the lot. Such was their near-decade of utter dominance – eight constructors’ titles in a row from 2014-2021 – Red Bull have some way to go before their percentage hit rate matches the Silver Arrows. Currently, the difference is 16.7 per cent.

There are contentious points. For example, included in that Mercedes tally are the nine wins from 1954-55, technically a different entity to the current works team. Yet, on the whole, the difference is stark.

But not insurmountable.

It’s important to note this with caution. Predicting dynasties in sport is always a dangerous game: jump the gun on an F1 forecast and the usual unpredictability of natural drama and human emotion can come back to bite you. Ferrari, for instance, have won just one drivers’ title in 16 years since their five-on-the-spin with Michael Schumacher in the early Noughties.

However, the outlook is particularly shiny at Milton Keynes. Red Bull have unequivocally nailed the current “ground-effect” regulations, not least due to Newey’s expertise in the area. This year’s title is virtually sewn up, with focus already switching to 2024 when they will be the heavy favourites once more.

The next phase of regulations is not enforced until 2026. By that point, with Newey having recently signed an extension to stay, Red Bull could have secured another three world titles. It could be another 50 or so wins by that point, such is the current trajectory. And from then, the launch of their own powertrains division comes to fruition, with American giant Ford as a partner.

In the constantly shifting arms race that is F1, Aston Martin, Mercedes, Ferrari and the rest – including new teams such as Audi – may well have something to say about that. Indeed, Red Bull have recently lost a key figure in engineer Rob Marshall, who joins McLaren next year. Dan Fallows similarly joined Aston Martin in 2022.

Newey’s omnipresence is the unignorable advantage. Yet as the sun set in Canada on another victory, did the 64-year-old give Red Bull a scare? And the rest of the paddock a glimmer of hope?

“My career can’t go on forever,” he said, post-podium. “As long as the team wants me and I keep enjoying it, I’ll keep going.

“But realistically it’s on a countdown.”

When that time will come, only he knows. What is not in question, however, is the absolute supremacy of this current Red Bull machine. From top to bottom, they now set the benchmark. The statistics of the past allude to that; the projection for the future indicates there could be plenty more to come.

Xural.com