2025 Oracle Red Bull Racing F1 Team

[f1isgood]

There is no reason to complain, not winning today is deserved, I think, even if the pace on H was excellent, as they missed running on M. Even if Max managed P1 in turn1, the S would have worked out only if atleast 2 guys around were on S, turned out they all were on M. The gamble on starting with S depended on 'others'. Not a big complaint, just that such things happen to a team that likes to gamble (unlike McLaren who always play it safe and conservative). Nevertheless, this S starting is exactly what I had expressed my doubts about, before the race started.

Anyway, considering the big picture, the car has definitely improved. After the race-ruining wing choices debacles at Silverstone and Spa (went for the opposite weather) and the disaster at Hungary, this is the result :

Zandvoort : P2
Monza : P1
Baku : P1
Singapore : P2

Would the team and Max and the people in this thread have taken this, before the summer break ?
A resounding yes.
The only reason there is some disappointment about today, is because of the huge hype that Max is in WDC contention. It's not good from a psychology perspective, to cling onto a hope that heavily relies on miracle (McLaren crashing). That miracle already happened in Baku.

Indeed Max actually managed to get 86 points in the last 4 races. Piastri just 52 points and Norris 39 points. So he gained 36 on Piastri and 47 on Norris. Really didnt expect this pace after Hungary, what a difference.

Due credit to Wache and his team as the upgrades were the key reason for this immense shift in performance. Needless to say, you need Max to get the maximum out of the car and even outperform the car's potential like he almost always does. Unreal driver.

[f1isgood]

It's not just the floor, but Redbull have had some other eureka moment with their operations : https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/Max- ... /10765269/

It underlines the upward trend – one that even Verstappen himself couldn’t have imagined back in Zandvoort. “Nobody expected this to be honest. But of course, there are reasons why things are suddenly working better now. I just can’t say what those reasons are,” he added with a smile.

One of the reasons is believed to be the new floor that Red Bull introduced in Monza. It has helped, but Verstappen made clear during his Dutch media session in the Singapore paddock that it’s not the main factor.

“Well, everything helps, of course, but that’s not the full reason,” he explained. Asked what is the most important factor, Verstappen replied: “A different philosophy.”

It refers to a new working approach – one that seems to be paying off in recent weekends. Verstappen doesn’t want to go into details, but Red Bull has not needed to completely overhaul the car set-up after Friday, something that was often the case earlier this season. “That’s correct. Now we can fine-tune the car more throughout the weekend, and that’s the most important thing.”

This naturally raises another key question: has this potential been in the car all along? It’s a “what if” scenario that ultimately changes nothing in the standings, but it’s still an intriguing one as it suggests that the RB21 might not have been as bad as many thought. Instead, maybe Red Bull just wasn't able to unlock its performance consistently.

When asked about that theory by Motorsport.com, Verstappen confirmed it for the first time: “That’s pretty clear, yes. But there’s nothing we can do about that now.”

He admitted that, with the lessons Red Bull has learned in recent weeks, the team could have extracted more from its 2025 challenger earlier in the year. “At the start of the season, for sure – absolutely,” Verstappen admitted.

(I guess probably some buggy setting in their sim correlations, which got likely uncovered by Mekies asking "but what about X, I found the same in vcarb's sim setup")

It's a nice narrative but I don't buy one bit of it. It's nice PR. Car got good upgrades, TD said that the upgrades produced more downforce than expected. Car is now well-rounded.

No setup is going to better that P9 in Hungary. This floor might have, however. Especially in a technical forum and especially in ground effect regulations, we have had indications of the car being able to run closer to the ground. The magic is visible for us all to see.

[pantherxxx]

And it wasn't just a minor upgrade of the floor. It was a complete redesign of the floor, and in ground force era it generates like 80% of the total downforce.

[Badger]

And it wasn't just a minor upgrade of the floor. It was a complete redesign of the floor, and in ground force era it generates like 80% of the total downforce.

Was it? IIRC it was just a small modification to the floor edge. You’d hardly do a “complete redesign” this late in the regulations.

[f1isgood]

It was a full floor redesign. Not just an edge update.

https://racingnews365.com/red-bull-thro ... -dominance

In the end Red Bull has had issues with tools recently. If this upgrade is doing what they wanted it to do, they will proceed to 2026 with renewed confidence.

Also during regulation changes its important to trust the basic tools. And like the team showed in 2021, it doesnt really matter how late you are fighting for a title. If you have good people and processes in place things will work out. I don't think Red Bull lose significantly for 2026 by changing things. Also we see probably upgrades commissioned a few months ago. So its all been in the pipeline for a good while.

[chrisc90]

I don’t think upgrades underneath need to be declared either

[CjC]

Possible flexi front wing as well.
Oh the irony:

https://www.the-race.com/formula-1/the- ... -f1-order/

I’ll look forward to the cheating chants

[Alexf1]

So with the new front wings on the Red Bull and Mercedes there's the chance Russel could regularly sneak between Max and the McLarens. That would be a nice curveball.

[Badger]

Possible flexi front wing as well.
Oh the irony:

https://www.the-race.com/formula-1/the- ... -f1-order/

I’ll look forward to the cheating chants

Great news. RB have not been on the ball with regards to flex lately so it’s good to see that they actually kept pursuing that even after the TD made it more stringent. Now they may have stolen a march instead, provided there’s actually any substance to this.

[CjC]

So with the new front wings on the Red Bull and Mercedes there's the chance Russel could regularly sneak between Max and the McLarens. That would be a nice curveball.

Did you hear who Russell said after the race who had the fastest race car in Singapore?

[Vettel165]

So with the new front wings on the Red Bull and Mercedes there's the chance Russel could regularly sneak between Max and the McLarens. That would be a nice curveball.

Indeed imagine a dream scenario in which Mclaren falls even behind Mercedes and Red Bull together. Max winning races and Russel finishing right behind him, with Piastri being around P4, and Lando P3. It needs 3 consecutive races to finish like this (Texas, Mexico and Brasil) then the gap would go down with Piastri from 63 to 24 points with 3 races to go. With Lando it would go down from 41 to just 11 points. Imagine the pressure in which both Mclaren drivers would be, and not just that it would mean one of the most amazing end of the season that we saw. Its just a speculation, we know the chances are quite low but nothing is impossible.

[WardenOfTheNorth]

So with the new front wings on the Red Bull and Mercedes there's the chance Russel could regularly sneak between Max and the McLarens. That would be a nice curveball.

Indeed imagine a dream scenario in which Mclaren falls even behind Mercedes and Red Bull together. Max winning races and Russel finishing right behind him, with Piastri being around P4, and Lando P3. It needs 3 consecutive races to finish like this (Texas, Mexico and Brasil) then the gap would go down with Piastri from 63 to 24 points with 3 races to go. With Lando it would go down from 41 to just 11 points. Imagine the pressure in which both Mclaren drivers would be, and not just that it would mean one of the most amazing end of the season that we saw. Its just a speculation, we know the chances are quite low but nothing is impossible.

Entirely possible though. Mind you, I’ve said this in the McLaren thread a couple of races ago, I cannot shake the feeling that Max and Oscar are going to come together at some point. I hope I’m wrong, but imagine if they did, with Oscar failing to finish and Max recovering to score plenty of points!!

[r85]

So with the new front wings on the Red Bull and Mercedes there's the chance Russel could regularly sneak between Max and the McLarens. That would be a nice curveball.

Indeed imagine a dream scenario in which Mclaren falls even behind Mercedes and Red Bull together. Max winning races and Russel finishing right behind him, with Piastri being around P4, and Lando P3. It needs 3 consecutive races to finish like this (Texas, Mexico and Brasil) then the gap would go down with Piastri from 63 to 24 points with 3 races to go. With Lando it would go down from 41 to just 11 points. Imagine the pressure in which both Mclaren drivers would be, and not just that it would mean one of the most amazing end of the season that we saw. Its just a speculation, we know the chances are quite low but nothing is impossible.

Entirely possible though. Mind you, I’ve said this in the McLaren thread a couple of races ago, I cannot shake the feeling that Max and Oscar are going to come together at some point. I hope I’m wrong, but imagine if they did, with Oscar failing to finish and Max recovering to score plenty of points!!

Seeing that the racing in COTA and Brazil is good there's a bigger chance of the McLarens coming together in a heated battle. It takes another Azerbaijan weekend or two though for Max to have a good shot at it.

[AR3-GP]

There are more updates coming.

“But just to make it clear, what we have now and what we have a little bit later is developed a long time in advance. It’s not like it's from yesterday.”

https://racingnews365.com/max-verstappe ... 026-f1-car

[f1isgood]

Still lack race pace relative to the Orange cars. Austin will hopefully be a good race.