Brawn: Red Bull should have been battling for the title

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Formula 1's director of motorsport Ross Brawn admits he's disappointed that there isn't a three-way battle for this year's title.

Currently the fight is between Mercedes' Lewis Hamilton and Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel. But Brawn says that Red Bull should have been right in the mix as well.

“For the whole team I’m sure there’s something a little bittersweet in the team’s recent form," he said this week.

Red Bull had a disappointing start to its 2017 campaign. Max Verstappen was particularly badly hit by a high number of early retirements. As a consequence, he was ruled out of the title battle almost before it started.

But ever since the summer break, the team has appeared transformed. Daniel Ricciardo has finished on the podium in four out of the five races, while Max Verstappen was victorious in Malaysia and runner-up at Suzuka.

“This year has once again confirmed the Milton Keynes squad’s recent tendency to get the best from its package in the second part of the season,” Brawn said in a Formula 1 media release.

Brawn: 'Ferrari problems haven't erased its achievements'

"If this was the early phase of the championship, then Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo might be considered serious title contenders.

“But that's out of the question because of the early-season performance gap the team suffered," he pointed out.

“The team has done an excellent job in building performance across the season," he added,. "For everyone involved I’m sure there’s a hint of ‘what if’ about this season.”

Even now, engine reliability and power are holding Red Bull back. The team uses a Renault engine which simply isn't a match for the power units developed by Mercedes and Ferrari.

“There are undoubtedly a number of reasons for this," Brawn commented. "The time needed to mitigate that through other development opportunities, and obviously the efforts made to address that power deficit by the team’s supplier."

Red Bull has already announced that they are to split from Renault at the end of the 2018 season. Amid rumours that the team is working to bring Aston Martin into the sport, it's believed that they will move to the Honda stable for 2019.

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.