2025 Oracle Red Bull Racing F1 Team

[PierreW]

@PierreWache, I think you're all wrong about the situation. Ver has not decided to go anywhere. He was pleased with the 3 stop strategy and generally not too bothered about the day. He did not criticize the decision to use the hard tire after the race. He said he didn't know which tire would have been better. It was all rather reasonable takes. I'm sure he will be at RBR next year. For all the grief that the RBR technical team receives and all the CVs distributed to rivals, there's only 1 team ahead. I wouldn't trust any other teams other than Mclaren.

In 2026, I think VER will do select endurance races while RBR sort the PU and car out. He knows that is coming...If RBR build up to something by end of 2026, then he stays. If not, accept proposals from other teams. For RBR they have plenty of talents. I can see Hadjar and Lindblad at the team if Max leaves. That is going to be a very strong line up.

Verstappen was not pleased to be released with hard tyres, to be the only pilot to have hard tyres. He was a little diplomatic after the race, because he has hot temper on the moment but does not like to pour water on a drowning man after the race.

Marko said it was the wrong choice, Leclerc said he knew it would be easy to pass because the hard tyres were ---.

RB being midly competitive at the hands of Verstappen now has nothing to do with 2026 or the quality of the current Red Bull team. They are only living off the legacy of the 2022 RB developement team, but each year it becomes more tenuous as the new work done on the car does not match the quality of the work done by the old team who left.

At this pace, nothing will remain soon. And with the new reg, it could be a year zero next year. I don't know why it should be expected that Verstappen waste 1-2 years of his career to see if Red Bull is going to be a top team again. That's a big gamble. He isn't 18 anymore and other teams will look like to hire him.

[mwillems]

Ferrari?? You've the second fastest car, easily.

Seriously… Some of the takes here…

Yeah true. What with being the only other team with race wins and being comfortably ahead of Merc and Ferrari in the drivers championship, what a silly idea (!?), even after throwing away a hatful of points yesterday.

It's not faster than Merc and Ferrari at all tracks, but overall it is clearly faster, reflected in the table and results, and the only other car capable of winning races and beating the Mclaren.

Definitely the only car fast enough to take advantage of any Mclaren mishaps in the drivers championship, and if they ever take each other out thats a big haul of points.

To then state that it isn't the second fastest car is a curious take to say the least, but to suggest that the idea is somehow implausible? How could something consider that? I genuinely don't know how to respond to that.

[Sergej]

Still wondering how the fu*k they went Ferrari and fitted a hard tyre for a SC restart with 10 laps to go

[Bill]

a lot of rumbling here .i personally think redbull improved the drivability of their car in imola the hot condition does not help them. yuki is struggling is perhaps old and new parts that dont seem to communicate and giving him a monaco wing was not going to work. The problem was the car sliding and chewing its tires similar to Bahrain race .its not that the car was ridiculously difficult to drive .and other backmarkers has improved too.

[chrisc90]

Haven’t bothered to read through the 25-30 pages of posts this morning.
But what a disappointing way to end clearly a great race by Max and the RBR team.

Went the extra stop and were 99% of the way to pulling it off. Good tone the cars going for it rather than baby the tyres. Hopefully it’s a thing we see more of - as it clearly caught McLaren off guard.

Hindsight I would have stayed out in the soft tyre, It wasn’t that much older than the cars behind and would have stood a better chance of keeping the lead.
With safety cars now taking nearly 10 laps to clear a incident and sort the lapped cars out, and allowing them to catch the back of the field, it has to be taken into consideration the now linger SC periods.

[DChemTech]

Haven’t bothered to read through the 25-30 pages of posts this morning.
But what a disappointing way to end clearly a great race by Max and the RBR team.

Went the extra stop and were 99% of the way to pulling it off. Good tone the cars going for it rather than baby the tyres. Hopefully it’s a thing we see more of - as it clearly caught McLaren off guard.

Hindsight I would have stayed out in the soft tyre, It wasn’t that much older than the cars behind and would have stood a better chance of keeping the lead.
With safety cars now taking nearly 10 laps to clear a incident and sort the lapped cars out, and allowing them to catch the back of the field, it has to be taken into consideration the now linger SC periods.

Indeed, honestly the most likely scenario with staying out would be falling behind McL again and ending 3th, which they already were... and with some chance of ending higher due to favorable track position (although overtaking at Barcelona seems easier now than it was back in 2016).

[chrisc90]

Agree. 3rd was always the worst spot after the safety car. Lec didn’t have mega pace and I think he would have struggled to pass max on equal compounds.

[avantman]

Still wondering how the fu*k they went Ferrari and fitted a hard tyre for a SC restart with 10 laps to go

AI and computers make these decision these days it seems. Cannot imagine that was a decision thought through and made by a human. Computer said the deg 7 laps old soft had would make it slower tire over the rest of the stint than brand new hard. Everyone suddenly forgot that before the race literally every team knew hard had to be avoided at all costs, even if that means fitting cars with used softs for full length race stints, which is already a complete anomaly (if we look at other circuits of the calendar). Which in turn just shows how poorly performing tire C1 hard was. The hardest by far 'hard' in the Pirelli range. The decisive warm-up factor has been somehow completely ignored or overlooked, but even warm-up hard was 1.5s slower than 3-4 laps used soft. I cannot imagine 7 laps old soft, that they had would be that much slower. As I understand that final set of soft had just one push quali lap in it, two slow in and out laps, and four installation they did before the race. I switched on late yesterday, could anyone confirm that Max was running on soft out of the garages before the race?

[Watto]

Haven’t bothered to read through the 25-30 pages of posts this morning.
But what a disappointing way to end clearly a great race by Max and the RBR team.

Went the extra stop and were 99% of the way to pulling it off. Good tone the cars going for it rather than baby the tyres. Hopefully it’s a thing we see more of - as it clearly caught McLaren off guard.

Hindsight I would have stayed out in the soft tyre, It wasn’t that much older than the cars behind and would have stood a better chance of keeping the lead.
With safety cars now taking nearly 10 laps to clear a incident and sort the lapped cars out, and allowing them to catch the back of the field, it has to be taken into consideration the now linger SC periods.

In hindsight no doubt, I doubt he would've kept the 2 McLarens behind him but I think he would have stalled it long enough so that Charles no real chance to overtake. There wasn't that great a pace difference between them

I'd say it was frustrating to them cause it certainly seemed to catch McLaren a little on the hop, yes I think they were too strong no matter what but it did put pressure on them I don't think they were expecting.

[Sergej]

Still wondering how the fu*k they went Ferrari and fitted a hard tyre for a SC restart with 10 laps to go

AI and computers make these decision these days it seems. Cannot imagine that was a decision thought through and made by a human. Computer said the deg 7 laps old soft had would make it slower tire over the rest of the stint than brand new hard. Everyone suddenly forgot that before the race literally every team knew hard had to be avoided at all costs, even if that means fitting cars with used softs for full length race stints, which is already a complete anomaly (if we look at other circuits of the calendar). Which in turn just shows how poorly performing tire C1 hard was. The hardest by far 'hard' in the Pirelli range. The decisive warm-up factor has been somehow completely ignored or overlooked, but even warm-up hard was 1.5s slower than 3-4 laps used soft. I cannot imagine 7 laps old soft, that they had would be that much slower. As I understand that final set of soft had just one push quali lap in it, two slow in and out laps, and four installation they did before the race. I switched on late yesterday, could anyone confirm that Max was running on soft out of the garages before the race?

yes, confirmed by TheRace

"Actually there was a set of used softs but they'd done four laps of qualifying and three pre-grid laps and so were no better than the set he'd put on seven laps earlier."

https://www.the-race.com/formula-1/mark ... -imploded/



anyway, I asked Gemini what was the best thing to do and the verdict is quite straightforward

The Verdict
Stay out on your old Soft C3 tires and restart from first position.
The Reasoning
This decision hinges on the critical balance between tire performance at race restart and track position.
1. The Immense Advantage of Track Position (P1) at Restart: Controlling the Pace, Dictating Race Lines
2. Tire Temperature: The Deciding Factor: Warm Softs vs. Cold Hards
3. Your Relative Speed Advantage
4. Managing Degradation vs. Immediate Grip:
Softs: While your Softs have 7 laps of wear and will degrade, you have 11 laps to manage them. It will be challenging, but feasible with careful driving. The immediate grip advantage at restart outweighs the long-term degradation concern in this scenario.
Hards: Opting for Hards means sacrificing immediate performance and grip for potential durability. In a sprint to the finish, immediate performance is paramount, especially when your rivals have fresher, faster compounds.

[FittingMechanics]

Max is becoming more error prone. His focus is slipping.

With the way this team is operating this could become a huge issue.

[mwillems]

It does feel that at Red Bull at least, he won't tolerate second and that he's lost patience with the team.

It'll be interesting to see if he leaves F1 as Ringo suggests he might, stays with the Bulls or goes to Aston or Ferrari.

[avantman]

what would F1 do without Max ? look at this very thread. mclaren, ferrari and hamilton fans are more interested in max than their own teams and drivers.
what ringo suggests is an example of wishful thinking, nothing more than that.

[DGP123]

what would F1 do without Max ? look at this very thread. mclaren, ferrari and hamilton fans are more interested in max than their own teams and drivers.
what ringo suggests is an example of wishful thinking, nothing more than that.

It’s a dull season, with no wheel to wheel racing, compounded by us having to endure a lacklustre duel between two very boring and plain Macca drivers, who have no real rivalry. Inevitable that anyone who brings excitement or controversy will take the limelight. The season is boring, and both championships are Macca’s. Max is F1 right now, and why every team would sign him, and why RB should do everything they can to keep him

[avantman]

yes, confirmed by TheRace

"Actually there was a set of used softs but they'd done four laps of qualifying and three pre-grid laps and so were no better than the set he'd put on seven laps earlier."

https://www.the-race.com/formula-1/mark ... -imploded/

Thanks for confirming that. I've got only one question left, what are they at rbr doing........