2026 Oracle Red Bull Racing F1 Team

[vorticism]

Yeah, but Yuki cooks better because he gets better ingredients given to him. Max just isn't getting good enough ingredients. The kitchens have always been Yuki focused, that's just a fact.

[langedweil]

Yeah, but Yuki cooks better because he gets better ingredients given to him. Max just isn't getting good enough ingredients. The kitchens have always been Yuki focused, that's just a fact.

[vorticism]

I will be convinced about Verstappen when I'll see him in other cars where he still outperforms others.

This premise always had an absurd implication. Apparently the RB18 looked the way it did not due to aerodynamics nor kinematics nor Newtonian physics. No, no. It looked the way it did due to Max Verstappen. You can forget about Newey, Wache, wind tunnels, and CFD. Yes, the RB18 looked the way it did because it was tailored to suit Max Verstappen.

But then, why did the rest of the grid emulate the RB18-series cars across the remaining four seasons? Max Verstappen only drives for one team. He does not drive for ten teams. Is Max Verstappen a telepath? Did he change the way other drivers drive by telekinetic suggestion? Could this also have been the root cause of porpoising? Max Verstappen reaching out with his mind to shake the other cars?

But I am a rational man. All that sounds absurd. It must be something else. Something unseen. Something inside the car, not directly visible, only teased out by a true analyst employing the scientific process and willing to grapple with the numbers. Gremlins? Gnomes? No. I've rejected such superstitions long ago. So it must be the dampers. Max Verstappen dampers. And the springs, yes. The springs. Max Verstappen springs. "No Checo, you can't have Checo springs. Only Max springs," I can hear Christian Horner saying from the pit wall, in my mind.

But springs and dampers aren't very expensive, though, and Sergio Perez crashed fifty million dollars worth of carbon fiber in his tenure at Red Bull Racing, so it can't be that they couldn't have afforded to give him Checo springs. So what was it then? And then it dawned on me. It was so obvious the whole time: The upgrades. The upgrades. It was the upgrades the whole time. To the unseasoned viewer, they might just look like little fins on the edge of the floor, but to me, they're the philosopher’s stone. You see, when you move the fourth fin of the edge wing, the one between the third fin and the fifth fin, three millimeters background, it becomes more of a Max Verstappen edge wing and less of a Sergio Perez edge wing. This totally (completely) alters airflow downstream. Because it's a system you, see. A complex system. Understood only by those with a scientific mindset, like me.

Anyway, I rest my case. I don't understand why people get so "overprotective" of Max sometimes the moment you paint him as anything else other than a literal god on human form.

You rest your case with a strawman argument? No one did that. As the saying goes, “methinks thou dost protest too much.”

Reminds me of when European diaspora people express an interest in their history, or enjoy their traditions, and then someone chimes in, "Well, now, hold on. That’s extremist behavior. You shouldn't be thinking that way." Which causes the target to wonder what the real intention is.

[Emag]

The comment I replied to seems to have been manually deleted. Mods are free to remove my reply then, it looks silly with no context.

[basti313]

Let's say... you were not successful in expressing and defending your point.

Can we get back to the cooking, please? This "Max is not good" discussion is just boring.

What did Hadjar cook for Christmas?

[Wouter]

[venkyhere]

This premise always had an absurd implication. Apparently the RB18 looked the way it did not due to aerodynamics nor kinematics nor Newtonian physics. No, no. It looked the way it did due to Max Verstappen. You can forget about Newey, Wache, wind tunnels, and CFD. Yes, the RB18 looked the way it did because it was tailored to suit Max Verstappen.

But then, why did the rest of the grid emulate the RB18-series cars across the remaining four seasons? Max Verstappen only drives for one team. He does not drive for ten teams. Is Max Verstappen a telepath? Did he change the way other drivers drive by telekinetic suggestion? Could this also have been the root cause of porpoising? Max Verstappen reaching out with his mind to shake the other cars?

But I am a rational man. All that sounds absurd. It must be something else. Something unseen. Something inside the car, not directly visible, only teased out by a true analyst employing the scientific process and willing to grapple with the numbers. Gremlins? Gnomes? No. I've rejected such superstitions long ago. So it must be the dampers. Max Verstappen dampers. And the springs, yes. The springs. Max Verstappen springs. "No Checo, you can't have Checo springs. Only Max springs," I can hear Christian Horner saying from the pit wall, in my mind.

But springs and dampers aren't very expensive, though, and Sergio Perez crashed fifty million dollars worth of carbon fiber in his tenure at Red Bull Racing, so it can't be that they couldn't have afforded to give him Checo springs. So what was it then? And then it dawned on me. It was so obvious the whole time: The upgrades. The upgrades. It was the upgrades the whole time. To the unseasoned viewer, they might just look like little fins on the edge of the floor, but to me, they're the philosopher’s stone. You see, when you move the fourth fin of the edge wing, the one between the third fin and the fifth fin, three millimeters background, it becomes more of a Max Verstappen edge wing and less of a Sergio Perez edge wing. This totally (completely) alters airflow downstream. Because it's a system you, see. A complex system. Understood only by those with a scientific mindset, like me.

Haven't laughed this hard in a while.
Confirmation bias is present in all walks of life, so if someone still thinks 'its only the car, he isn't anything special' so be it. We all have our opinions, and are going to stick with it ; what's the point of trying to convince people who don't agree with our own, on subjective non-measurable matters ?

To me personally, I've been watching F1 since the early noughties, and nothing made me sit bolt upright and rub my eyes in disbelief than Brazil 2016. It was not a seasoned veteran who was doing it, but a teenager. A teenager. That was enough to convince me about the genius. Exactly like Messi or Michael Jordan. There will be mistakes, there will be 'under par' performances, but once in a while the 'true genius' shows up. There is indeed a category, above the good, very good, excellent, great even - it's the genius/gifted category - it's not necessary that 'statistics' reveals this differentiation, but it's there.

[euv2]

To me personally, I've been watching F1 since the early noughties, and nothing made me sit bolt upright and rub my eyes in disbelief than Brazil 2016. It was not a seasoned veteran who was doing it, but a teenager. A teenager. That was enough to convince me about the genius. Exactly like Messi or Michael Jordan. There will be mistakes, there will be 'under par' performances, but once in a while the 'true genius' shows up. There is indeed a category, above the good, very good, excellent, great even - it's the genius/gifted category - it's not necessary that 'statistics' reveals this differentiation, but it's there.

Exactly, just imagine the praise a youngster would get today if they did what Max did in 2016. We've had Kimi (generational talent to some) and Bearman and none have put in a performance even close to it, neither have the world class batch of Max's generation in Leclerc, Russell, Lando and now Oscar.

You just have to watch Max and see the ease at which he gets moves done, other drivers take multiple laps to setup and pass, Max usually gets it done in one go, this has been evident from the day he stepped foot in F1, this combined with his robotic consistency (the best ever in F1), performance under pressure (impeccable performance in his 1st championship fight, finishing only P1 and P2 without damage, or races like 2024 Brazil) is the type of stuff you can't really quantify. You just have to go back and watch this seasons Hungary GP and check out Max's overtakes into the chicane, no one else is pulling off stuff like that.

Max is doing all of this in the most stacked/competitive grid of all time, where the gaps between the drivers are the smallest, they've ever been.

Also, to the point of car development, if everything is setup to suit Max then why did Red bull make the car's suit Perez more at the start of every season, wouldn't it make more sense to continue development to suit Max? or do they only start listening to Max in season? It could be something as simple as Max getting used to the car more after a few races of settling in as evidenced in Baku 23 after playing around with the tools.

[organic]

I expect Max will be complaining about driveability of the PU all season. New gimmick unlocked

[Paa]

I expect Max will be complaining about driveability of the PU all season. New gimmick unlocked

I vote for 'clipping' as magic word for 2026.

[Henk_v]

I think the first half of 2026 will be the battle of deployment. The new engine and active earodynamics have extremely complex interaction to optimise around a lap and that dies not even consider setting it up to overtake, manage tires or defend.

Deployment is relatively "in plain sight" through telemetry. Others will adapt quickly, but my gueass would me that the cumulative reaction wil be a greedy algorithm opening the door for a possibility of disruptive strategies.

I hope they poached the deployment guys from Honda, as deployment was their strongest suit.

[BassVirolla]

I think the first half of 2026 will be the battle of deployment. The new engine and active earodynamics have extremely complex interaction to optimise around a lap and that dies not even consider setting it up to overtake, manage tires or defend.

Deployment is relatively "in plain sight" through telemetry. Others will adapt quickly, but my gueass would me that the cumulative reaction wil be a greedy algorithm opening the door for a possibility of disruptive strategies.

I hope they poached the deployment guys from Honda, as deployment was their strongest suit.

Playing funny games with car behaviour / race evolving / engine & aero deployment takes four drivers to my mind.

To keep it just as team relevant, I'll say that one of them is Max.

[Danlizzyman]

This premise always had an absurd implication. Apparently the RB18 looked the way it did not due to aerodynamics nor kinematics nor Newtonian physics. No, no. It looked the way it did due to Max Verstappen. You can forget about Newey, Wache, wind tunnels, and CFD. Yes, the RB18 looked the way it did because it was tailored to suit Max Verstappen.

But then, why did the rest of the grid emulate the RB18-series cars across the remaining four seasons? Max Verstappen only drives for one team. He does not drive for ten teams. Is Max Verstappen a telepath? Did he change the way other drivers drive by telekinetic suggestion? Could this also have been the root cause of porpoising? Max Verstappen reaching out with his mind to shake the other cars?

But I am a rational man. All that sounds absurd. It must be something else. Something unseen. Something inside the car, not directly visible, only teased out by a true analyst employing the scientific process and willing to grapple with the numbers. Gremlins? Gnomes? No. I've rejected such superstitions long ago. So it must be the dampers. Max Verstappen dampers. And the springs, yes. The springs. Max Verstappen springs. "No Checo, you can't have Checo springs. Only Max springs," I can hear Christian Horner saying from the pit wall, in my mind.

But springs and dampers aren't very expensive, though, and Sergio Perez crashed fifty million dollars worth of carbon fiber in his tenure at Red Bull Racing, so it can't be that they couldn't have afforded to give him Checo springs. So what was it then? And then it dawned on me. It was so obvious the whole time: The upgrades. The upgrades. It was the upgrades the whole time. To the unseasoned viewer, they might just look like little fins on the edge of the floor, but to me, they're the philosopher’s stone. You see, when you move the fourth fin of the edge wing, the one between the third fin and the fifth fin, three millimeters background, it becomes more of a Max Verstappen edge wing and less of a Sergio Perez edge wing. This totally (completely) alters airflow downstream. Because it's a system you, see. A complex system. Understood only by those with a scientific mindset, like me.

Haven't laughed this hard in a while.
Confirmation bias is present in all walks of life, so if someone still thinks 'its only the car, he isn't anything special' so be it. We all have our opinions, and are going to stick with it ; what's the point of trying to convince people who don't agree with our own, on subjective non-measurable matters ?

To me personally, I've been watching F1 since the early noughties, and nothing made me sit bolt upright and rub my eyes in disbelief than Brazil 2016. It was not a seasoned veteran who was doing it, but a teenager. A teenager. That was enough to convince me about the genius. Exactly like Messi or Michael Jordan. There will be mistakes, there will be 'under par' performances, but once in a while the 'true genius' shows up. There is indeed a category, above the good, very good, excellent, great even - it's the genius/gifted category - it's not necessary that 'statistics' reveals this differentiation, but it's there.

I wouldn't expect that particular user to have any good word to say about a genius like Michael Jordan.

[Badger]

Thanks for deleting that comment Darth Piecrust. Always good when posters realise they are wrong and correct themselves.

[Darth-Piekus]

I decided that it was not worth it. Everyone is entitled to believe what they want even if its a lie so why bother. It wont really change anything. Hopefully 2026 will shake up the order and provides some good competition and may the new year be better than the last.