On countless occasions have they looked nowhere in practice, before hitting the ground running in qualifying and blitzing their opposition.
It happened recently in the Las Vegas Grand Prix, and in Qatar, where Max Verstappen was outside the top 10 on two occasions.
Going on to win both events and secure the drivers’ championship in the process, highlights why they have been so dominant in this era of racing – having the clutch gene when it matters most.
With a fourth consecutive drivers’ championship wrapped up already before arriving in Losail, Red Bull’s focus turned to a very outside shot at the constructors’ title.
Rivals McLaren and Ferrari were far ahead, and continue to be so despite mixed weekends, mainly due to Sergio Perez’s continued poor run of form.
With a bit of a nothing-to-lose attitude, Verstappen was free to attack how he pleased – as was apparent with his turn one lunge on George Russell.
But after Friday’s practice, it didn’t look like they would be in contention at all, and former McLaren mechanic Marc Priestley was impressed by their improvements.
“What happened though after that [Sprint] was a dramatic turnaround, particularly in the hands of Max Verstappen and Red Bull.
“Where the engineering team there, together with Max and everyone surrounding them, did a wonderful job of understanding what was wrong with that car and engineering their way out of the problem.”
Red Bull’s inability to set the car up efficiently comes from an engineering philosophy they chose to adopt a long time ago.
It all comes down to the direction that they have developed their car in, which hasn’t been as great as their rivals, and left them with a finer setup window.
With that comes a smaller margin for error, and therefore when they get it wrong, it can take longer for them to find the sweet spot of their car.
The winter will be an important time for them as they set out to rectify any issues with the RB20 and give Verstappen a good baseline to win a fifth consecutive crown.
Without any improvements, they could find themselves in a position to be the third or fourth fastest team from the beginning – a mountain which may finally be too steep to climb for the Dutchman.
