Red Bull team boss recently admitted that reigning world champion Max Verstappen will have to take a power unit penalty in the 2024 F1 season. He stated that the team is currently discussing when to change the power unit in Verstappen’s RB20.

Back in 2023, the Dutchman was able to dominate the grid by winning races left right, and center. In the entire 2023 season, he won 19 out of 23 races. In 2024, however, Max Verstappen is facing strong competition from Ferrari, McLaren, and even Mercedes.

In the first 12 races up until now, Verstappen has only won seven of them. As the season progresses, rival teams will develop their cars even further and pressure the three-time world champion.

On top of all this, Max Verstappen will also face a power unit penalty. This is because he has already reached the limit to change six components of a power unit. Beyond this quota, each new component a team fits in the power unit will incur a 10-place grid penalty.
As per RacingNews365, Red Bull’s team principal Christian Horner also stated that Max Verstappen would have to take a penalty at some point in the season. He added that Red Bull is working with Honda to decide on which race they should take the penalty.

“I’m sure at some point we’ll end up taking an extra engine for Max. It’s just a question of when you strategically choose to do that. So we’re working with Honda on that. Inevitably we will take a penalty at some point in the year,” Horner said.
Red Bull team boss on RB20’s future development as competition at the top tightens
Red Bull team boss Christian Horner recently talked about his team’s development for the RB20 F1 car. While other rival teams drastically closed the gap to the reigning world champions, the Austrian team themselves worked hard to find marginal gains.

According to RacingNews365, Horner hinted that his team could still find incremental gains on RB20. He also touched on the tight competition with Mercedes and McLaren during the European triple-header (Spain, Austria, Britain).

“There’s stuff that we have in the pipeline, there are still gains to be had. Inevitably, when it becomes closer, it’s down to those marginal fine details that make the difference. Form is moving around a bit. Mercedes was strong [at Silverstone], McLaren was strong [in Austria], we won in Barcelona. Out of this triple header, I wouldn’t be at all surprised if Max has scored the most points,” Horner said.
After the British GP, Max Verstappen and Red Bull continue to lead the drivers’ and constructors’ championship with 255 and 373 points, respectively.