2026 Oracle Red Bull Racing F1 Team

[f1isgood]

If car would be so bad Hadjar would not have said he will win a race this year. Wache and Mekies are intentionally downplaying things. At the livery reveal Ford's CEO Jim Farley told us that people love underdog stories. They have to play the underdog, the small energy drink company against the big manufacturers. But Toto, Russell, Sainz and Norris said the same thing, that Red Bull have clear and big advantage in energy management. And Leclerc also said that he thinks that Red Bull is ahead of Ferrari.

Red Bull is the underdog regardless of what happens. They didn't win the last two titles with a dominant car. They are a start-up engine manufacturer without years of institutional knowledge present at Mercedes and Ferrari.

If Red Bull actually outdid the other powerhouses, the other powerhouses have to just take another loss and admit that there's nothing special about them, even with all that institutional knowledge.

Institutional knowledge can be a hindrance. You have to keep using technology and methodology that you invested in a long time ago. The RB project had no inertia. They could setup the factory in an ideal way for the 2026 PU regs. There was not holding on to old ideas simply because that's how things are done at the company. It can be a benefit.

Going into these regulations, would you rather be Mercedes or Red Bull?

[gearboxtrouble]

That being said, RBPT hired hundreds of people off of Mercedes. They are not really a startup like Audi that are literally starting from scratch with their own people. Horner did an incredible job on this.

Horner deserves a lot of the credit. Hiring the right people has always been his biggest strength and its clear that Hodgkinson and Prewitt are the right people to lead RBPT. Over 100 Illmor/Mercedes engineers followed them over to RBPT and I think this has made a huge difference in how prepared they look for this season. The job was to have an engine that at some point in 26 could convince Max that they'll be title contenders come 27. Imho they've already accomplished that. They might not be the best but I think they've shown enough to say with some confidence they belong on the grid and will be contenders in 27 at the latest.

[AR3-GP]

That being said, RBPT hired hundreds of people off of Mercedes. They are not really a startup like Audi that are literally starting from scratch with their own people.

Are Jorg Zimmerman, Lars Schmidt, and Mattia Binotto Audi's "own people"? Audi collected resumes from other teams just like everyone else. They are not a startup. Audi has a long history with high thermal efficiency V6 turbos and hybrids from Le Mans, Dakar, DTM, Formula E, and all of technology and white papers of the VW AG. When Audi wanted to start their program, they already had a facility in Neuberg and a ready to go V6 hybrid engine that was built for them by Porsche. (Porsche built F1 engine in 2017).

RBPT started from nothing. No buildings, no people, no engines, no patents, no frameworks, no reputation. They made their first engine in August of 2022. Ford didn't partner with them until 2023. They are the only "startup" here in every sense of the word. If hiring people that already succeeded in F1 is the magic formula for being good right away, Aston Martin would have won something already.

A lot credit goes to Horner for attracting such a talented group of individuals while people like Zak Brown and Toto Wolff spent years spreading lies about Horner and RBR.

[dialtone]

That being said, RBPT hired hundreds of people off of Mercedes. They are not really a startup like Audi that are literally starting from scratch with their own people.

Are Jorg Zimmerman, Lars Schmidt, and Mattia Binotto Audi's "own people"? Audi collected resumes from other teams just like everyone else. They are not a startup. Audi has a long history with high thermal efficiency V6 turbos and hybrids from Le Mans, Dakar, DTM, Formula E, and all of technology and white papers of the VW AG. When Audi wanted to start their program, they already had a facility in Neuberg and a ready to go V6 hybrid engine that was built for them by Porsche. (Porsche built F1 engine in 2017).

RBPT started from nothing. No buildings, no people, no engines, no patents, no frameworks, no reputation. They made their first engine in August of 2022. Ford didn't partner with them until 2023. They are the only "startup" here in every sense of the word. If hiring people that already succeeded in F1 is the magic formula for being good right away, Aston Martin would have won something already.

A lot credit goes to Horner for attracting such a talented group of individuals while people like Zak Brown and Toto Wolff spent years spreading lies about Horner and RBR.

I’m not here to defend audi, but 2 of those 3 names started there this morning.

As Binotto mentioned in an interview, it’s like a different sport for them at the moment, they simply don’t have the same technology he had when he was in Ferrari.

I didn’t say the secret to winning is to hire people from other teams, but it sure helps. And when you hire hundreds of them it certainly helps a lot. I’m not trying to discredit their work, they built what looks like a good engine, but I’m also not sure I would call them a startup.

[Enstone]

Guys you're speaking about Mercedes and Ferrari, but since 2 years they're still behind McLaren (a customer team), and Redbull !

Maybe they have much more experience than RBPT, but even so, they haven’t managed to win a championship for quite some time especially Ferrari, unfortunately !

[CHT]

That being said, RBPT hired hundreds of people off of Mercedes. They are not really a startup like Audi that are literally starting from scratch with their own people.

Are Jorg Zimmerman, Lars Schmidt, and Mattia Binotto Audi's "own people"? Audi collected resumes from other teams just like everyone else. They are not a startup. Audi has a long history with high thermal efficiency V6 turbos and hybrids from Le Mans, Dakar, DTM, Formula E, and all of technology and white papers of the VW AG. When Audi wanted to start their program, they already had a facility in Neuberg and a ready to go V6 hybrid engine that was built for them by Porsche. (Porsche built F1 engine in 2017).

RBPT started from nothing. No buildings, no people, no engines, no patents, no frameworks, no reputation. They made their first engine in August of 2022. Ford didn't partner with them until 2023. They are the only "startup" here in every sense of the word. If hiring people that already succeeded in F1 is the magic formula for being good right away, Aston Martin would have won something already.

A lot credit goes to Horner for attracting such a talented group of individuals while people like Zak Brown and Toto Wolff spent years spreading lies about Horner and RBR.

I do agree, Horner is great leader and he didn't just attract talented people, but also created its own unique RB winning culture. i think till today they still see themselves a the underdog in F1. First as a drink company running F1 team, and now a drink company making PU.

[ryaan2904]

I still believe firing Horner was a mistake. He countered Toto like no other

[euv2]

Aero guys were happy during the Barcelona test, so I wonder what's changed between that and Bahrain. Bahrain is a lot more 1 dimensional as a track, did the other teams find more improvements? Ferrari definitely did, MCL nothing obvious and Merc said Barcelona the car felt better.

[Sergej]

Aero guys were happy during the Barcelona test, so I wonder what's changed between that and Bahrain. Bahrain is a lot more 1 dimensional as a track, did the other teams find more improvements? Ferrari definitely did, MCL nothing obvious and Merc said Barcelona the car felt better.

Were aero guys unhappy after Bahrain ? Don't forget that Ferrari updated their car for Bahrain, which improved their performance.

[bluechris]

Aero guys were happy during the Barcelona test, so I wonder what's changed between that and Bahrain. Bahrain is a lot more 1 dimensional as a track, did the other teams find more improvements? Ferrari definitely did, MCL nothing obvious and Merc said Barcelona the car felt better.

The huge difference in temperatures between this 2 tests maybe plays a role.

[AR3-GP]

Wednesday - HAD
Thursday - VER
Friday - HAD/VER

https://racingnews365.nl/testschema-ver ... in-onthuld

[organic]

Hopefully the upgrades they are bringing are significant

[Vettel165]

Legend.

[pantherxxx]

I agree that Horner contribution was very significant. He was the one who built Red Bull Powertrains from a blank sheet of paper.

[f1isgood]

Even Mintzlaff praised Horner for the engine project. Such a shame that hes not the head of the team that he built from scratch.

Anyways it is what it is. We will see if this new team can be the force that they were under Horner in the following years.

Getting the right people is only one part of the equation. Making them work together efficiently and in unison is a very non trivial aspect of this sport especially when credit is hardly given to the actual people who make the drivers win. In retrospect its always easy to make comments like, ah but RBPT would anyways succeed etc. There's no guarantee that the engine project would have raised eyebrows if the same set of people were hired in a different organization.

All the top teams have more or less similar talent density. Only one team has always managed to win in all seasons except 2015, which is more than a decade ago... Thats something thats makes Red Bull quite unique.