2025 Oracle Red Bull Racing F1 Team

[f1isgood]

Well, people were basing that on the Monza spec where Max was faster than the Mclaren's in the slow sectors.

There's no credible evidence the floor isn't working as intended.

Brazil these regulations has been a bogey track. Nowhere in 22, Norris was faster in 23, similar to 23 in 24 and rain saved the day and now nowhere like 22. It's what it is.

4 tenths in 1 sector is inexplicable for a car that was performing well in COTA in similar corners. Can't just chalk it down to it being a bogey track, there's deeper problems.

COTA requires a different balance though. It's a much more bumpier track and actually has some real high-speed corners and straights which suit these generations of Red Bull cars.

You cannot obviously ignore that the car is quite tricky to get right around this track.

There could be deeper problems but it's all too early to conclude.

In case the floor is a failure then the technical team has work cut out. Nothing more to add.

[Emag]

Problem is that race will be dry, while tomorrow should be a washout with rain, so good luck in finding the right setup.

It's not a given yet. Interlagos has a storm warning for tomorrow. It could be torrential to the point where we don't even get qualifying at all. As for the race, it's still not high confidence yet either. It could be sprinkling on the race, although to be fair, unless it's fully wet/inters conditions, it won't do RedBull many favours going by how strong McLaren has been on changeable conditions this season.

[FNTC]

Max was not happy in Sky post sq interview. Lots of vibrations, no grip. Etc.

[Emag]

Yeah there's just no grip at all in T7-T8-T9-T10-T11

Also did Max have a slipstream starting the last lap? It seems like the 10 milisecond gap in the first sector is all due to Max starting the lap with ~5kmh higher top speed. They end the lap with pretty much identical top speeds so it doesn't seem like it's a drag thing. Also could be that Lando started the lap badly or some big differences in deployment map maybe.

[Vettel165]

Fix that S2 and we might have a small chance…

[Emag]

Fix that S2 and we might have a small chance…

I mean, it's easy when you say it like that, but S1 has 2 real corners and S3 has 1 real corner. S2 is 80% of the track ...

[AR3-GP]

to collect more useful data in the sprint, Tsunoda got the same setup as Verstappen, by the way, according to Marko.

Not doubting that he said this, but usually you run different setups to get more useful data. Doing the same thing twice is called something else...

Also, Tsunoda has the Austin floor. He also damaged the new spec front wing in FP1, so he was given the old front wing again. There is little to learn.

[Macklaren]

Problem is that race will be dry, while tomorrow should be a washout with rain, so good luck in finding the right setup.

It's not a given yet. Interlagos has a storm warning for tomorrow. It could be torrential to the point where we don't even get qualifying at all. As for the race, it's still not high confidence yet either. It could be sprinkling on the race, although to be fair, unless it's fully wet/inters conditions, it won't do RedBull many favours going by how strong McLaren has been on changeable conditions this season.

Sky said only 20% rain probability tomorrow though despite severe thunderstorm watch for the region

[Wouter]

[venkyhere]

COTA requires a different balance though. It's a much more bumpier track and actually has some real high-speed corners and straights which suit these generations of Red Bull cars.

You cannot obviously ignore that the car is quite tricky to get right around this track.

There could be deeper problems but it's all too early to conclude.

In case the floor is a failure then the technical team has work cut out. Nothing more to add.

Disagree.
If RB21 could match (or even surpass in race) the McL39 in COTA S3, in two qualifying sessions, and it can't do the same in Interlagos S2, something is definitely 'broken' (in Max's words) with the car. It is definitely not a 'tweakable' issue, but something more basic. Without S2, there is no point driving this track - if it were upto me, I would break parc ferme, bolt on the Austin floor and Austin setup (even if it means sacrificing top speed in S1/S3) and imitate the specific setup that was tuned to optimize S3 in COTA. Run the sprint, and do nothing but monitor S2 times. All it needs to do is match the S2 times posted by McLaren in tomorrow's sprint (wet or dry) - that's the reference. Doesn't matter finishing P20, because with this current setup, wet sprint is going to be P20 anyway. That will be a good 'evaluation' of whether the Mexico floor is a disaster (being greedy and going for more downforce) , and whether to treat the Austin setup as 'base' (which can be tweaked) for the Sunday race and the 3 other circuits. Forget the WDC, concentrate on coming 2nd in WCC.Z

PS : it's not looking 'recoverable' like Mexico (where the car still was good through the slow sections and struggled only with the medium/high-speed section in middle sector) because there are no Mexico-like 'slow corners with superhard braking and straighline traction' in Interlagos. Continuing with the current setup and 'hoping' to study the sprint data from tomorrow, is going to be useless, my gut says. Something has to give.

[Emag]

COTA is quite flat after S1 though. The corners are not the same profile as Brazil S2 which has ups and downs and cambered corners. It's more bumpy in Brazil I would say, but if the past is any indications, bumps shouldn't be McLaren's best friend so I guess that's irrelevant. Max said specifically that he cannot turn the car but he can't rely on the rear either. Seems like there's a lot of understeer, with a loose rear end when he tries to "forcefully" rotate it with brakes, which causes poor exits as well. Could be ride-height related, because you cannot run the same setup you run in COTA around here.

Also, I feel like people here are operating under the assumption that RedBull has the same data we have. The "desperato" move venkyhere suggested is only viable from our perspective, but RedBull knows way more what's going on with the car than we do right now. If there was any indication that the Mexico floor specifically was causing huge issues, it's more than likely they would have known already by now. And I emphasize the word "huge", because this doesn't seem like a small thing. Max has no grip in S2.

EDIT : "Flat" for COTA after S1 is perhaps the wrong word to use, but there's more gradual elevation as opposed to Brazil which goes a bit more extremely from high to low between corners, with more camber on the corners itself too.

[Valeo]

Use Yuki as a test mule like Checo in Qatar last year and try to figure out something for the remaining weekend.
There's nothing to lose.

[Emag]

Use Yuki as a test mule like Checo in Qatar last year and try to figure out something for the remaining weekend.
There's nothing to lose.

With this I agree. Although I think someone mentioned Yuki has no spare parts available, so he is forced to run with the Austin spec regardless.

[venkyhere]

What did you mean in Interlagos v COTA, by 'more camber' - the 'helpful one' or the 'hurting one' (positive or negative term confuses me whether it's for tyre or for track) ?

[Emag]

What did you mean in Interlagos v COTA, by 'more camber' - the 'helpful one' or the 'hurting one' (positive or negative term confuses me whether it's for tyre or for track) ?

I usually mean both kinds when I don't specify, but English is not my first language so perhaps I am using the word wrong. There's also those troublesome "sudden drops" in some of the corners as well which can be particularly tricky for these cars which run very low to the ground.