2025 Oracle Red Bull Racing F1 Team

[AR3-GP]

Mekies is on the pitwall and supports Yuki a lot. I'm sure they have their reasons.

it looked like a pre-planed strategy to me, so yeah, I guess they had reasons. Maybe to get to test the hards in clean air.

But that strategy was obviously never going to be any good, so I would think it's normally something you tell your driver in advance then.

If they didn't want to achieve anything, they wouldn't have given him a new PU.

[search]

Mekies is on the pitwall and supports Yuki a lot. I'm sure they have their reasons.

it looked like a pre-planed strategy to me, so yeah, I guess they had reasons. Maybe to get to test the hards in clean air.

But that strategy was obviously never going to be any good, so I would think it's normally something you tell your driver in advance then.

If they didn't want to achieve anything, they wouldn't have given him a new PU.

maybe this time the engine had damage indeed. The strategy was certainly not one you'd choose to get a result.

[lio007]

I can't imagine the amount of cheating accusations and sh$$posting if it was RBR that got DSQ'd.
Even the new PU for Max made some headlines.

[search]

if anyone still is looking for a topic to discuss: today Marko said that Verstappen would have won without the final stop in Interlagos

No idea if that goes back to an internal analysis, though, or if he was just talking out of his ass

[f1isgood]

if anyone still is looking for a topic to discuss: today Marko said that Verstappen would have won without the final stop in Interlagos

No idea if that goes back to an internal analysis, though, or if he was just talking out of his ass

It's done and dusted but it was an in my view an obvious call. They simply got scared for no obvious reason.

[vorticism]

I never got the impression there was enmity between Horner and Newey. They built an empire together with Dietrich. Horner to AMR-Honda has been occasionally guessed at all year, and it all seemed unrealistic or wishful. If this happens it would tell us something about the management crisis that occurred at RBR, or RB in general. Sacking a team principal with 8 titles to his name was insane. Is RBR without Horner, Newey, and Mateschitz still RB? Not RB-Renault, nor RB-Honda, at least. Moving into the RB-Ford era now.

And what is going on with the RB17? (Keep reading...) Haven’t heard much about it for a year. Maybe a Newey-Horner reunion could poach old RBAT colleagues to work on a Valkyrie II. Would be nice to see a Porsche return which would grant them RBR, RBPT, and Verstappen. Porsche-Ford would be about as congruent as Aston Martin-Honda. Otherwise maybe Ford goes for larger stakes. RBPT as a sort of Ford HPP. In which case... The RB17 has become... The new GT40? Which is to be debuting in January alongside the RB22... In which case it would have the 15k RPM Cosworth V10? RB40! My rampant speculation now concludes.

Is it possible? You heard it here first... Ford GT40 branding might add cachet to a car that was sold somewhat upon its association with Newey, Horner, and RBR. Associations which no longer exist in full. GT40 heritage as replacement for the loss of some RBR heritage might be decent idea.

[Vettel165]

Norris won't even get near the podium if they have to run the car higher. Just like how Ferrari performance disappeared after China sprint win.

Good point. Now we have some cards on our side as well. The engine is quite fresh, so it will mean more perfomance on the long straights, comparing to other teams. Also like you said, maybe Mclaren will be scared now to run the car lower again, which will make their balance/perfomance worse. In a perfect scenario also both mercedes drivers and Leclerc are in the mix as well for that podium place. But will it be enough to take some points of Norris? I dont really know. What I know is Max has to win two races to have a shot again, and then hope for the best. If we take mistakes from this season into account, Max has done much better than Piastri and Norris. Both should have been at least 50-60 points ahead of him if we count all of drivers mistakes from this season. But after Brasil the chance was about 1% for the title, now its about 10-15%, really proud of the team and Max for fighting until the end. Everything else is a bonus. "Is it written in the stars?"

[organic]

The Qatar GP with everyone pushing harder due to mandated stint lengths could be interesting wrt plank wear. Merc also said they'd be quick in Qatar. Chances for a bigger points gain

[AR3-GP]

The cushion of rest hardly gets any bigger when you listen to George Russell's forecast for the Qatar GP. "This is a Red Bull track. Fast corners are her territory. They have already shown that at Suzuka and Silverstone." McLaren team boss Stella counters: "The Abu Dhabi circuit plays into our hands again."

https://www.auto-motor-und-sport.de/for ... erstappen/

Russell thinks Red Bull are the favorites for Qatar.

[venkyhere]

Interesting tidbit data :
Vegas 2024 Q3 => 1:32:8 with 2 DRS windows and fresh C5 tyre
Vegas 2025 R => 1:33.36 with no DRS and 25 lap old C3 tyre
(turn 7-8-9 was faster by 0.1s in 2025 race than 2024 Q3)

Assuming that fuel load was similar and battery was fully drained in his final race lap, that is still a mega difference in car performance. I am guessing that a large share of performance improvement comes vide the purpose-designed lowDF wing.

[venkyhere]

The cushion of rest hardly gets any bigger when you listen to George Russell's forecast for the Qatar GP. "This is a Red Bull track. Fast corners are her territory. They have already shown that at Suzuka and Silverstone." McLaren team boss Stella counters: "The Abu Dhabi circuit plays into our hands again."

https://www.auto-motor-und-sport.de/for ... erstappen/

Russell thinks Red Bull are the favorites for Qatar.

I wouldn't be so sure that high-speed peformance of the RB21 is as good as the RB20, and in my mind this is the price for improving low/medium speed performance. This is the evidence that I could find :



However, if the tradeoff in COTA came from suspension setting, then there is a chance that RB21 retains high speed performance of RB20

[SealTheRealDeal]

I never got the impression there was enmity between Horner and Newey. They built an empire together with Dietrich. Horner to AMR-Honda has been occasionally guessed at all year, and it all seemed unrealistic or wishful. If this happens it would tell us something about the management crisis that occurred at RBR, or RB in general. Sacking a team principal with 8 titles to his name was insane. Is RBR without Horner, Newey, and Mateschitz still RB? Not RB-Renault, nor RB-Honda, at least. Moving into the RB-Ford era now.

And what is going on with the RB17? (Keep reading...) Haven’t heard much about it for a year. Maybe a Newey-Horner reunion could poach old RBAT colleagues to work on a Valkyrie II. Would be nice to see a Porsche return which would grant them RBR, RBPT, and Verstappen. Porsche-Ford would be about as congruent as Aston Martin-Honda. Otherwise maybe Ford goes for larger stakes. RBPT as a sort of Ford HPP. In which case... The RB17 has become... The new GT40? Which is to be debuting in January alongside the RB22... In which case it would have the 15k RPM Cosworth V10? RB40! My rampant speculation now concludes.

Is it possible? You heard it here first... Ford GT40 branding might add cachet to a car that was sold somewhat upon its association with Newey, Horner, and RBR. Associations which no longer exist in full. GT40 heritage as replacement for the loss of some RBR heritage might be decent idea.

No way Porsche is buying out any F1 team, let alone Red Bull, if it can't even afford WEC.

[AR3-GP]

I wouldn't be so sure that high-speed peformance of the RB21 is as good as the RB20, and in my mind this is the price for improving low/medium speed performance. This is the evidence that I could find :

https://i.ibb.co/mChvQGFr/RB20-v-RB21-h ... rmance.png

However, if the tradeoff in COTA came from suspension setting, then there is a chance that RB21 retains high speed performance of RB20

COTA has a wider spread of corner types (low speed, medium, high). It's also bumpy and hot there. So there were setup compromises that Red Bull had to make. Qatar is a flat and 1-dimensional high speed circuit where track temp won't be high. They'll be able to set up for high speed corners (low and stiff).

A big difference between last year and the RB20 after Monza is tire deg and end of race pace. Last year Mclaren was in their own league after the pit stops. Now Red Bull is also competitive at the end of the races. I think they have good chances to win in Qatar. Russell predicted that Max would win in Baku and thinks the same for Qatar. Maybe Mercedes has simulations that can predict these things, or maybe it's gamesmanship.

[Badger]

Interesting tidbit data :
Vegas 2024 Q3 => 1:32:8 with 2 DRS windows and fresh C5 tyre
Vegas 2025 R => 1:33.36 with no DRS and 25 lap old C3 tyre
(turn 7-8-9 was faster by 0.1s in 2025 race than 2024 Q3)

Assuming that fuel load was similar and battery was fully drained in his final race lap, that is still a mega difference in car performance. I am guessing that a large share of performance improvement comes vide the purpose-designed lowDF wing.

A difference that large has to be track related. The grip of the surface.

[Vettel165]

Max is also a monster in high speed corners and with a good front-end he can rotate the car in his way and gain time on most of the drivers, making the difference. Remember how good he is in S1 always in Suzuka.