2025 Oracle Red Bull Racing F1 Team

[F1Sara]

Yes! Max is Papa Max now. Also according to the Telegraaf

[organic]

The rb21 is partially built with coolers visible + journos in the pitlane with cameras so surely we will get some internals photos for good comparison to see any changes to philosophy today

[f1isgood]

Anyone know if they changed the cooling last year during the season? All I remember was this kind of packaging that they had with the RB20 was going to yield great aero benefits and if I am not mistaken I did ask about this when the car wasn't working maybe on the previous year's forum of RBR.

I also recall Wache saying that the aero team did a great job to do that aggressive cooling.

Would be very good if the cooling actually fixes the bulk of the issues with the rear but also a bit disappointing in that the other one had more theoretical potential.

[organic]

Anyone know if they changed the cooling last year during the season? All I remember was this kind of packaging that they had with the RB20 was going to yield great aero benefits and if I am not mistaken I did ask about this when the car wasn't working maybe on the previous year's forum of RBR.

I also recall Wache saying that the aero team did a great job to do that aggressive cooling.

Would be very good if the cooling actually fixes the bulk of the issues with the rear but also a bit disappointing in that the other one had more theoretical potential.

Waché said in pre-season the cooling layout with the v-shaped brought in with the rb20 launch spec heavily limited their aero development.

[f1isgood]

Anyone know if they changed the cooling last year during the season? All I remember was this kind of packaging that they had with the RB20 was going to yield great aero benefits and if I am not mistaken I did ask about this when the car wasn't working maybe on the previous year's forum of RBR.

I also recall Wache saying that the aero team did a great job to do that aggressive cooling.

Would be very good if the cooling actually fixes the bulk of the issues with the rear but also a bit disappointing in that the other one had more theoretical potential.

Waché said in pre-season the cooling layout with the v-shaped brought in with the rb20 launch spec heavily limited their aero development.

This year's pre-season you mean? Or during the season last year?

Because I found this: https://www.gpblog.com/en/interview/pie ... th-it.html

And why is that cooling so important to you guys?
PW: "Because it's pushing our philosophy of aero concept even more."

[organic]

No major floor update this weekend. Have to wait for imola

[organic]

Anyone know if they changed the cooling last year during the season? All I remember was this kind of packaging that they had with the RB20 was going to yield great aero benefits and if I am not mistaken I did ask about this when the car wasn't working maybe on the previous year's forum of RBR.

I also recall Wache saying that the aero team did a great job to do that aggressive cooling.

Would be very good if the cooling actually fixes the bulk of the issues with the rear but also a bit disappointing in that the other one had more theoretical potential.

Waché said in pre-season the cooling layout with the v-shaped brought in with the rb20 launch spec heavily limited their aero development.

This year's pre-season you mean? Or during the season last year?

Because I found this: https://www.gpblog.com/en/interview/pie ... th-it.html

And why is that cooling so important to you guys?
PW: "Because it's pushing our philosophy of aero concept even more."

Waché in 2025 pre-season:

We have made significant changes to the car, but most of them are not visible.The entire cooling system has been modified because it severely limited us in aerodynamic development last year.The entire floor has been revised to enlarge the car's operating window. For this, we responded to the interpretation of the association regarding the flexibility of the front wing.

Here is a post explaining the changes made between 2024 and 2025:
viewtopic.php?p=1269681#p1269681
Such as abandoning the v-shaped coolers

[Sergej]

So are we expecting here the new McLaren style brake duct ?

[organic]

So are we expecting here the new McLaren style brake duct ?

Conflicting info. We had Dr obbs saying rear suspension parts on twitter a little while ago though. Brake duct changes would be visible in Thursday photos too

[Silent Storm]

Anyone know if they changed the cooling last year during the season? All I remember was this kind of packaging that they had with the RB20 was going to yield great aero benefits and if I am not mistaken I did ask about this when the car wasn't working maybe on the previous year's forum of RBR.

I also recall Wache saying that the aero team did a great job to do that aggressive cooling.

Would be very good if the cooling actually fixes the bulk of the issues with the rear but also a bit disappointing in that the other one had more theoretical potential.

Waché said in pre-season the cooling layout with the v-shaped brought in with the rb20 launch spec heavily limited their aero development.

This year's pre-season you mean? Or during the season last year?

Because I found this: https://www.gpblog.com/en/interview/pie ... th-it.html

And why is that cooling so important to you guys?
PW: "Because it's pushing our philosophy of aero concept even more."

Here's an hypothesis as to why it's been changed...
viewtopic.php?p=1280650#p1280650

viewtopic.php?p=1280844#p1280844

viewtopic.php?p=1281044#p1281044

[f1isgood]

Waché said in pre-season the cooling layout with the v-shaped brought in with the rb20 launch spec heavily limited their aero development.

This year's pre-season you mean? Or during the season last year?

Because I found this: https://www.gpblog.com/en/interview/pie ... th-it.html

And why is that cooling so important to you guys?
PW: "Because it's pushing our philosophy of aero concept even more."

Waché in 2025 pre-season:

We have made significant changes to the car, but most of them are not visible.The entire cooling system has been modified because it severely limited us in aerodynamic development last year.The entire floor has been revised to enlarge the car's operating window. For this, we responded to the interpretation of the association regarding the flexibility of the front wing.

Here is a post explaining the changes made between 2024 and 2025:
viewtopic.php?p=1269681#p1269681
Such as abandoning the v-shaped coolers

Cool, thanks! The risk didn't pay off in hindsight.

[f1isgood]

Waché said in pre-season the cooling layout with the v-shaped brought in with the rb20 launch spec heavily limited their aero development.

This year's pre-season you mean? Or during the season last year?

Because I found this: https://www.gpblog.com/en/interview/pie ... th-it.html

And why is that cooling so important to you guys?
PW: "Because it's pushing our philosophy of aero concept even more."

Here's an hypothesis as to why it's been changed...
viewtopic.php?p=1280650#p1280650

viewtopic.php?p=1280844#p1280844

viewtopic.php?p=1281044#p1281044

Yeah, thanks for this. I already had read the entire thread, very very informative and totally plausible. Thanks for the great theory!

[AR3-GP]

I remember a Red Bull engineer on twitter during last year's preseason claiming that the RB20 cooling system was revolutionary for them and would change the way they did cooling systems in the future, carrying into 2026. They probably saw something big in simulations that never materialized in the real world. I think they just got carried away or got too clever with the "unlimited" cooling system loophole, thinking they would exploit this to make gains since they had a limited windtunnel allocation.

I already suspected that there were problems in this area last year when they claimed that they had a high downforce engine cover and a low downforce engine cover...Teams don't do that...It's like having two different cars in the wind tunnel. It's too complicated to have to evaluate test parts with two different concepts of engine cover. The cannons never returned.

[organic]

I remember a Red Bull engineer on twitter during last year's preseason claiming that the RB20 cooling system was revolutionary for them and would change the way they did cooling systems in the future, carrying into 2026. They probably saw something big in simulations that never materialized in the real world. I think they just got carried away or got too clever with the "unlimited" cooling system loophole, thinking they would exploit this to make gains since they had a limited windtunnel allocation.

I already suspected that there were problems in this area last year when they claimed that they had a high downforce engine cover and a low downforce engine cover...Teams don't do that...It's like having two different cars in the wind tunnel. It's too complicated to have to evaluate test parts with two different concepts of engine cover. The cannons never returned.

I believe what happened with respect to the engine cover options is that I think it comes down to lack of correlation and having a trackside engineering team who looks for the fastest solution in the short-term and the factory for the long-term. I don't think they set out to design a high DF engine cover when they brought the Hungary upgrade package. I think they wanted to discard the cannon direction because they were deemed to be potentially part of the ongoing correlation issues the team faced - the hungary engine cover really looks like an early rb18 design suggesting that it was makeshift and in my opinion it was designed in a hurry to get rid of the cannons.. However the track team likely found that on higher speed circuits that the cannons were still very good for laptime .. The cannons were still used at Monza, Spa, Baku each of which efficiency is very important for. But then data you're collecting isn't as valuable so you have to make a decision after a certain amount of time - not run at Vegas/Abu Dhabi

AMR are another team with major correlation issues and likewise they seemed to find themselves with certain engine cover/sidepods/floors that worked better or worse at circuits with different characteristics. But the factory didn't set out to create this situation for the trackside team

[organic]

Van Haren says new floor in Miami for Verstappen...

Let's wait for the declared parts


Big litmus test coming