Pierre Gasly was originally meant to be driving the car for the entire season after moving from Toro Rosso to replace Daniel Ricciardo.

[4] However, after the 2019 Hungarian Grand Prix it was announced that Alexander Albon would be replacing Gasly for the remainder of the season.

This change required a complete redesign of the car's rear end in order to accommodate the new engine.

There were also changes to the cooling system, new aerodynamic adjustments such as the wing design, an improves airflow, optimized bargeboards to maximize the chassis performance.

However, Gasly was knocked out in Q1 after a strategy error by the team, while team-mate Verstappen qualified fourth, behind the Ferrari of Sebastian Vettel.

[11] In China, both Red Bull cars secured third-row lockout with Verstappen and Gasly qualifying 5th and 6th respectively, giving the latter his first Q3 appearance this season.

Verstappen would cross the line in 2nd but was demoted to 4th after a 5-second penalty for an unsafe release, whilst Gasly was 5th (setting the fastest lap in the process).

In Canada, Verstappen was caught out by red flags for Kevin Magnussen crashing at the end of Q2 and would only qualify 11th, with Gasly 5th.

In Germany, the two Red Bulls took advantage of power unit problems for both Ferraris to qualify 3rd (Verstappen) and 4th (Gasly).

Gasly finished a disappointing 6th, stuck behind Carlos Sainz's McLaren for most of the race, and ended up being lapped by Verstappen.

In Italy, Verstappen was due to start at the back of the grid after taking new engine components, but suffered power unit issues in qualifying and didn't set a time.

Albon, meanwhile, got through to Q3, but failed to set a time after getting caught out by every driver moving rather slowly in order to avoid the slipstream effect, and qualified in 8th.

In the race, after getting caught behind slow-moving cars at Turn 1, Verstappen damaged his front wing and had to pit at the end of Lap 1 - he eventually finished in 8th.

In Mexico, Verstappen took pole, only for a crash for Valtteri Bottas to bring out the yellow flags, forcing all other drivers to slow down.

In the race, Verstappen took his 3rd win of the season, while Albon had been on course for 2nd until being hit by Lewis Hamilton on the penultimate lap, dropping him to 15th (he would be promoted to 14th after a time penalty for Nico Hülkenberg).