2025 Oracle Red Bull Racing F1 Team

[AR3-GP]

Max got to experience next year's rules with all that clipping

[AR3-GP]

Yuki's pace in clean air vs Max. Over 1+ seconds slower more or less.




Considering that Max said the car had balance issues, it's clear that the fundamental characteristics baked into this car have not changed. If the upgrades had such an impact, as I said before, Max would now be fighting for the championship and not complaining about long standing balance issues and tire degradation.

Hungary will be a very difficult circuit for the RB21. Spa track suitability could have helped Yuki this weekend, but it will be more challenging next weekend since the field is more condensed on a shorter and less favorable track for this car.

[AR3-GP]

Lap 11 is when Max would have been able to pass Leclerc after he made a mistake at La Source. If only they had enabled the DRS as eagerly as they did elsewhere... The straightline speed and clipping was so poor that he couldn't even get close down the Kemmel after getting this close at La Source.

[Vanja #66]

Ferrari? You mean Leclerc specifically, because Hamilton was the fastest car on track except for 2 Mclaren.

Breathe brother, breathe and relax. Hamilton was barely matching Leclerc in later laps on Inters, he couldn't have been quicker than Leclerc with all that traffic around him

[Bill]

Was incredibly surprised to see the RBR clipping today down the straight and preventing any overtake on LeClerc.

Perhaps I’m remembering it wrong but is that not a role reversal with Merc from a couple of years ago where Merc PU was clipping whilst Honda (and Ferrari) navigated the electrical energy challenges really well?

if you listen to commenters the race went from wet to dry so the system has to learn who from driver driving behavior and then reprogramme itself for dry condition.Max said after the race they were able to resolve the issue so no excuse

[Bill]

Yuki's pace in clean air vs Max. Over 1+ seconds slower more or less.

https://i.postimg.cc/g0GBWtd0/image.png


Considering that Max said the car had balance issues, it's clear that the fundamental characteristics baked into this car have not changed. If the upgrades had such an impact, as I said before, Max would now be fighting for the championship and not complaining about long standing balance issues and tire degradation.

Hungary will be a very difficult circuit for the RB21. Spa track suitability could have helped Yuki this weekend, but it will be more challenging next weekend since the field is more condensed on a shorter and less favorable track for this car.

the lap time are a red herring because they are not driving the same package all the team needed to do was make a proper pitstop the he would have finished ahead of lawson were he was before pitstops ,he had a 3 second gap and his pace in sprint race was not bad he was able to hold Russell despite old spec.

[Wouter]

Van Haren says Max is definitely staying at Red Bull next year, exit clause has expired as well.

.
I don't see anywhere that Max or his management have confirmed this!
I do read that Erik van Haren HIMSELF has drawn this conclusion!

On other sites, I've read that Max will only make a decision about next year during the summer break. Mercedes is willing to pay the buyout fee. Van Haren doesn't mention that at all in his article. I'm taking this report with a very large grain of salt.
Even if all this is true, Max will announce in Hungary that he'll be driving for RBR next season, because he'll be getting a lot of questions about it now that Van Haren has presented his own conclusion.

Van Haren's article begins with:

All speculation can be thrown in the trash: Max Verstappen will also drive for Red Bull in 2026

SPA - Anyone who still had any doubts: Max Verstappen will definitely drive for Red Bull Racing in 2026.

That's a logical conclusion after the Belgian Grand Prix.

The performance clause in his contract is no longer in effect this season, now that the four-time world champion will definitely be in the top three during the summer break.

Thank you @SaraF1 for the link:

https://www.telegraaf.nl/sport/autospor ... 45199.html

[Bill]

That's not really the main issue. He was too slow. He got passed by a Sauber and a Haas in the last 3 laps. If they could pass him on a track which was almost impossible to overtake, then the cars further up would have also passed him and he would have been out of the points regardless.

This is exactly why I warned people not to let yesterday's qualifying and the "evil Horner", "updates were holding him back" narratives go to their heads. Could not pass an Alpine, and then passed by a Haas and a Sauber...

I am not trying to be harsh towards him, but I think it just shows the car itself hasn't improved much. The clue that it improved is 2 things. (1) The second driver becomes higher up and (2) Max fighting for wins. None of these things actually happened and Max still has the same balance issues.

The fastest laps say the same thing for Yuki. He best lap was 19th out of 20 cars. He would have been cannon fodder for the other cars in the top 10 even if he pitted on the same lap as Max. He was just too slow. So much for the "update" narrative...

https://i.postimg.cc/XvJhFd7Q/image.png

its not easy to overtake piatri had a problem with with Max in sprint race.if yuki maintained his position no one would have overtook him he was far ahead.he gave up in last lap because they was nothing to fight for and tires were gone. those is a major screw up from team,they pitted him 3 laps after Max.

Piastri was fighting Max in a Red Bull. All Tsunoda had to do was pass an Alpine powered by the championship's worst PU. There are no excuses for "giving up" places at the end to a Sauber and a Haas so that is a fabrication I'm afraid. How would he have held back Hadjar and Bortoleto who were much faster? What do you mean he had "nothing to fight for"? He should be showing that it was worth the risk of Max having no spare parts next weekend.

I hope Yuki can do well but wanted to call out the nonsense we were having to read in the last day or 2 about Yuki only being slow because of "updates". Red Bull doesn't even know if the updates will work most of the time. Their simulator and windtunnel are rubbish. Updates have made the car worse in the last year and a half. There are many reasons why the situation looks like this. Yuki crashed his car heavily in Imola destroying everything and it only compounds the budget deficit that Perez racked up with his own crashes of new chassis and new aero packages in the last 2 years. Then Red Bull tested many hybrid floors. Check the technical thread. Some were good and some were bad. They would have wasted so much money reproducing full sets of parts and spares for Yuki that are scrapped when the updates don't even work most of the time.

They said Yuki's floor was "2 updates behind". That is because the next floor update after the one he had was a failure and they had to bring another floor to Silverstone at the last round. This is exactly why it didn't make sense to keep having dual sets of upgrades only to discover it's not working or making the car harder to drive. The floor he has now is the one that Max got 1 race ago. Yuki got to "skip" parts that didn't work. Lucky him. The people who don't see the bigger picture are of course a) fans of Yuki and b) detractors of Max who think his teammates are slow because the car is not the same. Max has been a test mule all season long with hybrid floors and extreme wing specs because he is an experienced and adaptable driver who can handle all of the swings of performance and handling that are coming from these test parts and extreme setups in a very difficult car. Tsunoda needs a consistent car specification that he can run for several races to get used to, not something which is changing from race to race and session to session.

either you have update or not f1 its about the car ,i dont understand why people a super sensitive to the fact that Max usually get update first even if its factually correct it is what it is ,it was the same with Alonso at McLaren with stoffel .yuki with new package was able to qualify q3 and was not lapped like the races so update work so i dont know why you having a hissy fit

[AR3-GP]

either you have update or not f1 its about the car ,i dont understand why people a super sensitive to the fact that Max usually get update first even if its factually correct it is what it is ,it was the same with Alonso at McLaren with stoffel .yuki with new package was able to qualify q3 and was not lapped like the races so update work so i dont know why you having a hissy fit

Albon and Perez made Q3 in Spa every single year since 2020. Spa is the longest track on the calendar so of course it’s much harder to get lapped…What is special about this? Q3 at Spa and not being lapped is no out of the ordinary for an underperforming 2nd driver who gets fired. The Red Bull suits this track and they made setup changes after the lessons from the sprint. There's no hissy fit here. There's only excuses from you because you think updates are worth 8 tenths of a second. If updates was worth the gap between Yuki and Max, Max would be winning every race by 30 seconds since they started putting the updates...

[TwanV]

If yuki had the same issues with clipping, no wonder. As visible in max’ onboard on the kemmel straight behind leclerc, 300m before turn 5 the power drops before harvesting kicks in ie no chance to pass. My feeling is that they bet (too) heavily on a wet race with little need for top end power at the end of kemmel hence the switch to older pu components. Don’t know if it was the same for yuki, but it looks like it.

[Emag]

I'm with most fans on this, the FIA is far too cautious with the weather, and we hardly ever get proper wet races anymore. It feels like it’s either intermediate conditions on a drying track or we don't race at all, which is a huge shame.

However, I think it's unfair when people compare the FIA's approach at Spa to their leniency at Silverstone. Spa is just different.

We can't ignore that two drivers have died there in the last six years. For me, that alone is more than enough reason to be extra cautious at Spa. Don't need to jump the gun and call it rigged.

Of course, I'd love to see drivers like Max show off their talent in challenging conditions. But until a permanent safety solution is found for the Eau Rouge and Raidillon section, you can't really complain about the decisions being made for driver's safety.

[SiLo]

I'm with most fans on this, the FIA is far too cautious with the weather, and we hardly ever get proper wet races anymore. It feels like it’s either intermediate conditions on a drying track or we don't race at all, which is a huge shame.

However, I think it's unfair when people compare the FIA's approach at Spa to their leniency at Silverstone. Spa is just different.

We can't ignore that two drivers have died there in the last six years. For me, that alone is more than enough reason to be extra cautious at Spa. Don't need to jump the gun and call it rigged.

Of course, I'd love to see drivers like Max show off their talent in challenging conditions. But until a permanent safety solution is found for the Eau Rouge and Raidillon section, you can't really complain about the decisions being made for driver's safety.

Those deaths were in junior series, as callous as that sounds. We definitely could have gone racing sooner in Spa.

[Juzh]

I mean F2 raced in much wetter conditions just hours before F1, so there's literally zero reason to always cling on to these safety above all arguments.

[basti313]

However, I think it's unfair when people compare the FIA's approach at Spa to their leniency at Silverstone. Spa is just different.

Well, this is the point where I did not understand RedBull. I think they misjudged what happend in Stone. Without the error which was, of course, triggered by Piastri freezing the field, it might have been a glorious run. This might have ended in front of Norris.
Now they took the completely wrong approach, a low downforce setup like on the Ferrari it would have been clearly better. P2 or P3 in Q and a good chance to get a good race. Either they got greedy or afraid of the what is possible with or without the rain setup.

We can't ignore that two drivers have died there in the last six years. For me, that alone is more than enough reason to be extra cautious at Spa. Don't need to jump the gun and call it rigged.

Well...but...
As far as I saw it, they were cleaning the track after the rain. But instead of having the trucks go up and down Eau Rouge until it is dry and down Kemmel, they were mostly or at least when they were mostly shown in the feed in sector 2. Kemmel was one of the most wet parts of the track all race long.
I would not call it rigged, it was just plain stupid.

Of course, I'd love to see drivers like Max show off their talent in challenging conditions. But until a permanent safety solution is found for the Eau Rouge and Raidillon section, you can't really complain about the decisions being made for driver's safety.

It was already changed in 2022. Still, there is no explanation at all, why they left DRS off here. I think it is even funny that they allowed it right at the most dangerous moment when drivers changed to slicks and had to go into the wet spots when using it.

[pantherxxx]

Verstappen 1 second faster than his teammate, in pure race pace, yet still can't even get a podium here. This car is a dogsh@t midfield level car. Just looks top 3 car because of Verstappen. Let's hope that the 2026 car will have better aero and overall balance, tyre management etc.