2026 Oracle Red Bull Racing F1 Team

[pantherxxx]

When he says drivability is fantastic, that's telling a lot. He probably compares it to the previous Honda engine, and lot of aspects can be better in the new Red Bull Ford engine. He can mean that the engine is light, and have low center of gravity, that's why the car feels so good to drive.

[organic]

When he says drivability is fantastic, that's telling a lot. He probably compares it to the previous Honda engine, and lot of aspects can be better in the new Red Bull Ford engine. He can mean that the engine is light, and have low center of gravity, that's why the car feels so good to drive.

By drivability are they not talking about deployment, predictability, turbo lag, power/torque-throttle curve? That's how I interpret drivability in this context

[pantherxxx]

When he says drivability is fantastic, that's telling a lot. He probably compares it to the previous Honda engine, and lot of aspects can be better in the new Red Bull Ford engine. He can mean that the engine is light, and have low center of gravity, that's why the car feels so good to drive.

By drivability are they not talking about deployment, predictability, turbo lag, power/torque-throttle curve? That's how I interpret drivability in this context

Of course.

[Sieper]

Me too. And it is where the challenge lies, from what I can see, going into these first turned from the straight. Off throttle, back on it. There is still a lot of improvement to be made. ALL cars struggled there.

[langedweil]

Any knowledge about amount of laps for Ver today ?

[AR3-GP]

Any knowledge about amount of laps for Ver today ?

118

[AR3-GP]

Verstappen speaks of a 'good start' for Red Bull with its own engine. "It's also clear that we still want to improve many things, but that's normal in this phase."

He looked and sounded hoarse and confirmed that he is ill. Next tests in Bahrain in February. #F1

@ErikvHaren

[AR3-GP]

"We learned a lot, even though I wasn’t able to drive very much on the first morning. We will now analyse all the data," said Verstappen.

"It’s clear that there are still many things we want to improve, but I think that’s normal. Overall, the fact that we were able to do so many laps this week with a new engine is positive.

"It’s a good start, but it’s also still very early in the year."

During the post-Friday interview, Verstappen sounded unwell, before confirming that he had been ill across the week.

"By the start of the season, I’m sure I’ll be feeling better…" he said.

https://racingnews365.com/max-verstappe ... -bull-test

[Cassius]

"We learned a lot, even though I wasn’t able to drive very much on the first morning. We will now analyse all the data," said Verstappen.

"It’s clear that there are still many things we want to improve, but I think that’s normal. Overall, the fact that we were able to do so many laps this week with a new engine is positive.

"It’s a good start, but it’s also still very early in the year."

During the post-Friday interview, Verstappen sounded unwell, before confirming that he had been ill across the week.

"By the start of the season, I’m sure I’ll be feeling better…" he said.

https://racingnews365.com/max-verstappe ... -bull-test

Does not sound very positive. Similar to last year. Looks like they are a bit behind some other teams.

[pantherxxx]

I mean isn't that normal that teams want to improve things? It's just the first winter test.

[Cassius]

I mean isn't that normal that teams want to improve things? It's just the first winter test.

Max is an open book. If he feels they are fast / fastest, his choice of words will tell so.

The fact he mentions they need to improve many things instead of a couple of small things doesn't sound very positive to me, but maybe I am reading too much into it.

Mercedes drivers and also Leclerc sounded much more positive.

[pantherxxx]

I mean isn't that normal that teams want to improve things? It's just the first winter test.

Max is an open book. If he feels they are fast / fastest, his choice of words will tell so.

The fact he mentions they need to improve many things instead of a couple of small things doesn't sound very positive to me, but maybe I am reading too much into it.

Mercedes drivers and also Leclerc sounded much more positive.

But he said the same things last year in like the last 9 races, like he never said they're fastest, always that they want to improve. And he won 6 races out of 9.

[AR3-GP]

Testing is testing. It is only a snapshot. Teams don't stand still. Some will gain more than others between now and Australia.

[Badger]

IIRC Isack did a 20 lap stint in the mid 1:20s in the morning session on day 1, and then he did a low 1:18 in the afternoon. Somehow a 1:17.5 feels a bit sandbaggy to me taking those times into account.

[gearboxtrouble]

Red Bull will be delighted with how this test went minus the Hadjar crash but maybe the data about running in the wet with these cars will be valuable. The engine is ahead of where I expected and did a massive amount of laps between both teams with no major failures. The aero concept looks aggressive and the car should evolve significantly by Melbourne. The crash probably held them back from getting deep into setup optimization and pushing performance like Mercedes and Ferrari did but this should give them confidence that Bahrain can focus on those things.