Red Bull’s 2024 season kicked off with a sexting scandal that threatened the future of its team principal and ended with Max Verstappen claiming a fourth world title in a row.

There was everything and then some more in between those two events.

The furore surrounding Christian Horner’s alleged behavior almost ripped the team apart, pitting him against Verstappen’s dad and at least initially weakening his position within the team.

But Horner fought on and remains in place, which is more that can be said of chief designer Adrian Newey, who has swapped Red Bull for Aston Martin, and of Sergio Perez, who was replaced by Liam Lawson after a disastrous campaign.

Through it all, Verstappen remained the cornerstone of Red Bull’s success.

The Dutchman went winless for almost three months, an eternity for a man who had won 19 races the previous season, but had just enough in the critical moments to fend off Lando Norris’ challenge.

While the 27-year-old retained his title, the constructors’ championship slipped from Red Bull’s grasp after two years as McLaren finished top of the standing for the first time since 1998.

The Papaya ended last year as the car to beat, with Ferrari also overtaking Red Bull, who won only nine races after claiming a combined 38 victories out of 44 races in the previous two seasons.

As the rivals are circling, the challenge for Red Bull is to reestablish its domination before a major change in regulations next year.

Here’s five questions that will define Red Bull’s season.

Whatever happens in Australia next weekend, it will be a smoother start to the season for Red Bull than 12 months ago.

The opening weekend of the 2024 season was dominated by a sexting scandal involving Horner, who was accused of “inappropriate behavior” by a female employee.

The revelations rocked Formula 1 and led to a public breakdown in the relationship between the Red Bull boss and Verstappen’s father.

Horner denied all the allegations, but Verstappen senior warned Red Bull’s risked being "torn apart” by the scandal and questioned his influence on the team.

The Red Bull team principal was eventually cleared of any wrongdoing, but the feud between the two resurfaced at the end of June, when Jos accused Horner of preventing him from driving in the Legends' Parade at the Austrian Grand Prix.

Horner refuted the allegations, before Verstappen himself intervened to placate both parties.

In the new series of Netlifx’s show Drive to Survive, the 51-year-old claimed the texts were deliberately leaked to oust him from his spot.

“It was obviously premeditated to cause me the maximum amount of distraction, the maximum amount of aggravation,” he said.

“It was obvious that the end goal was for me to leave Red Bull.”

Horner retains the backing of Red Bull’s main shareholder Chalerm Yoovidhya, but the relationship between him, Verstappen’s father and Red Bull chief adviser Helmut Marko remains tense.

A truce of sort has developed for now, but will it hold?

The Dutchman won a fourth straight world title last year, but his future remains uncertain despite the truce between his father and Horner.

Verstappen made abundantly clear last season he was not happy with the car at his disposal, which places enormous pressure on Red Bull to deliver a machine capable of competing with the likes of McLaren, Mercedes and Ferrari.

The Dutchman is under contract with Red Bull for another three years and while the details of the deal have not been made public, it is understood to contain a clause that could allow him to walk away before 2028.

In September last year, Horner told the media Red Bull’s agreement with Verstappen included a “performance element” that could allow the 27-year-old an early exit.

Mercedes more or less overtly flirted with Verstappen throughout last season and team principal Toto Wolff met with Verstappen’s father, Jos, and the driver’s manager Raymond Vermeulen in the summer.

In January, Wolff poured cold waters on the rumours, suggesting “there was never a plan” for Mercedes to sign Verstappen.

But in an episode of Drive to Survive, the Silver Arrows boss offered a rather different take, revealing he never spoke to Verstappen because of a promise he made to Ferrari-bound Lewis Hamilton.

Crucially, however, Wolff hinted the prospect of luring the Dutchman away from Red Bull remains a possibility.

“I haven’t talked to him because I promised Lewis not to talk to him,” he said in the show.

“But I will have the conversation now.”

Expect this saga to rumble on and on.

While Horner and Verstappen remain in situ, Red Bull has lost one of its stars as Adrian Newey left after 19 years to join Aston Martin in a deal worth around $40m a season.

The 66-year-old agreed to an early exit from his contract in April as Red Bull chief technical officer in the wake of the allegations that surrounded Horner.

Newey’s contract with Red Bull was due to expire at the end of 2025, but his decision to leave the team ahead of schedule was understood to be motivated by the rule changes set to be introduced in Formula 1 in 2026.

Widely regarded as the greatest designer in the sport’s history, Newey’s cars have won 12 drivers’ championships and 13 constructors’ titles.

Eight of those drivers crowns have come with Red Bull, with Sebastian Vettel and Verstappen winning four apiece.

The signing of Newey is a significant coup for Aston Martin, who will welcome Honda as engine supplier in 2026, but a potentially huge loss for Red Bull.

After four wins in the first five races and seven in the first 10 Grands Prix of the season, Red Bull’s stranglehold on the sport vanished.

The car, as Verstappen put it, was “undrivable". Red Bull struggled to find the right balance, failing to address the mid-corner, slow-speed understeer that affected the car without creating oversteer in faster corners.

In September, Horner suggested Red Bull’s decline was down to the team overdeveloping its RB20.

Crucially, however, Newey claimed the issues had first reared their head back in 2023.

"Already through the very last stages of 2023, the car was starting to become more difficult to drive," Newey told BBC Sport.

"Max could handle it. Checo [Sergio Perez] couldn't.

"That carried into the first part of 2024, but the car was still quick enough to be able to cope with it.

“It's something I was starting to become concerned about, but not many other people in the organisation seemed to be very concerned about it.”

Red Bull's decision to replace Sergio Perez with Liam Lawson marks the fourth change of teammate for Max Verstappen since Daniel Ricciardo left the team in 2018.

Perez's contract was cut short following a significant drop in form after his May extension, culminating in an eighth-place championship finish – his worst since joining Red Bull.

Lawson, who demonstrated promise with points finishes during his stand-in appearances for RB, will now step up to partner Verstappen, with Red Bull anticipating a successful, albeit challenging, transition.

As Drive to Surive shows, Red Bull were very impressed with the New Zealander last season and the 22-year-old is certainly not afraid of the challenge.

“I’m not here to make friends,” he bullishly vows.