The car, which is the successor to the highly successful Red Bull RB19, was unveiled at the team factory in Milton Keynes on 15 February 2024.

[2][3][4] The RB20 was driven by defending World Champion Max Verstappen and teammate Sergio Pérez, the latter in what turned out to be his final season for the team,[5] and made its competitive debut at the 2024 Bahrain Grand Prix.

While the team attempted to introduce upgrades and changes to their car to return to their season-opening dominance, an uptick of performance from McLaren and Ferrari saw them drop to third in the Constructors' Championship.

At the Miami Grand Prix, Verstappen was set to win the race, having won the sprint, but hit a bollard and damaged his floor.

A safety car period then allowed Lando Norris to overtake Verstappen and take his maiden Grand Prix victory.

[13] At the Monaco Grand Prix, Verstappen qualified and finished sixth while Pérez had a heavy tangle with the Haas cars, sending all three drivers into retirement.

[14] Verstappen won the Canadian Grand Prix after a close qualifying session with George Russell, with the race being held under intermediate conditions that facilitated changes to the wet compounds.

[17] The British Grand Prix was particularly tricky for both Red Bull drivers, with Verstappen and Pérez making errors during qualifying that sent the latter out of Q1 and the former gaining floor damage.

[18] The Hungarian Grand Prix was not any better, with Verstappen struggling with the car's handling and pace while Pérez crashed out of Q1 for the second consecutive race in a row.

Verstappen's title rival Norris worked his way up from a lowly sixteenth on the grid to overtake him for fourth during the race's closing stages.

[23] McLaren's large points haul in this Grand Prix enabled them to surge ahead of Red Bull in the Constructor's Championship for the first time.

Following a four-week break, Red Bull introduced an upgrade package at the United States Grand Prix to reverse their recent slump in the pecking order.

Before the São Paulo Grand Prix, Red Bull opted to change Verstappen's ICE, resulting in an automatic five-place grid penalty for the main race.

[31] The RB20 demonstrated strong race pace at the São Paulo Grand Prix sprint, with Verstappen finishing third on the road just behind the two McLarens, while Perez climbed up to eighth from a lowly thirteenth on the grid.

[32] Both drivers were knocked out in Q2 after the Aston Martin of Lance Stroll crashed late into the session, preventing Verstappen and Perez from attempting another fast lap.

[33] In tricky conditions, Verstappen would scythe through the field to win against the odds in the main race, marking his and the RB20's first victory since the Spanish Grand Prix.

At the Las Vegas Grand Prix, the RB20 struggled to match the straight-line speed of its rivals as the team did not design a low-downforce rear wing spec ideal for the circuit configuration.

Verstappen climbed up to second in the race's opening stint after passing Leclerc and Sainz, who both experienced severe tyre graining.

[37] In the 3 hours between the sprint and qualifying sessions, Red Bull tweaked their set-up, resulting in a significantly improved balance in the RB20 that enabled Verstappen to set the fastest time in Q3.

[49] Following the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, where Red Bull lost the lead of the Constructors' Championship to McLaren, Horner revealed that said issues, which also coincided with a downwards slump in form for Pérez, stemmed from an upgrade to the RB19 introduced at the 2023 Spanish Grand Prix; the team began to focus their development on Verstappen's car over fixing any potential issues with their ultimately dominant 2023 car.