Christian Horner has made a startling revelation that the issues throwing the defence of Red Bull's titles into disarray started to materialise in last year's United States Grand Prix.
Horner's claim is all the more remarkable as that event was the third of a seven-race winning run to conclude the most dominant campaign in F1 history.
Even through the transition from the RB19 to the RB20, Verstappen won four of the first five, and seven of the opening 10 grands prix this year, but the wheels have now fallen off the Red Bull juggernaut, leaving the three-time champion under severe threat of failing to make it four titles in a row.
As for Red Bull, there is also the yawning realisation it is unlikely to retain its constructors' crown, with McLaren eight points adrift, and Ferrari 39 after Charles Leclerc's victory on the Scuderia's home track of Monza.
The RB20 has become, in the words of Verstappen, "undriveable" and "a monster" that needs to be "turned upside down" to find the root cause of its issues that are mired in a seemingly uncorrectable balance.
"We have to turn the situation around very quickly," Horner told media including RacingNews365.
"This circuit [Monza] has exposed the deficiencies that we have in the car versus last year.
"And we have a very clear issue which has been highlighted this weekend that we know we have to get on top of and address otherwise we put ourselves under massive pressure."
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Red Bull "in a vicious circle"
After starting seventh on the grid, Verstappen at least made up a place by the chequered flag, but was a staggering 38 seconds adrift of Leclerc.
Explaining why the weaknesses of the car were exposed more by Monza than any other circuit this season, Horner said: "Running more downforce perhaps hides some of the balance issues that we have.
"You can see that we've got a disconnection in balance that just isn't working, and then as soon as you end up in that situation, you're harder on tyres, you end up compensating, you move the balance around, and to cure one problem, you create another.
"So you just end up in a vicious circle."
Horner declared the issues have "been there for some time", initially indicating that after going through the data, they were "there at the beginning of the year".
He added: "Others have obviously made a step, and as we've pushed the package harder, it has exposed the issue."
Significantly, he then revealed: "Even if you go back [further] in the data, there were a few races last year where we started to see this in Austin, and so on.
"It's a characteristic we know we have to address, and full focus in the factory of Milton Keynes to do that."
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