2026 Oracle Red Bull Racing F1 Team

[FittingMechanics]

Bahrain test2 Day2 morning :
C4 tyres, combining three purple sectors by Norris, theoretical time = 1:32.995 , actual fastest lap = 133.453
C3 tyres, Vertappen with all three slower than Norris sectors = 1:33.584 (+ 0.131) , slower by ~0.6s to theoretical fastest.

We don't know if Norris changed his deployment strategy between those runs.

[Badger]

Bahrain test2 Day2 morning :
C4 tyres, combining three purple sectors by Norris, theoretical time = 1:32.995 , actual fastest lap = 133.453
C3 tyres, Vertappen with all three slower than Norris sectors = 1:33.584 (+ 0.131) , slower by ~0.6s to theoretical fastest.

Theoretical lap times are not very interesting in the era of huge deployment variations.

[venkyhere]

Both Norris and Verstappen spending the first half of the morning session trying to 'tune' Q lap runs - both hitting a wall around the mid 1:33s. They tried everything by moving the deployment around in different mini sectors, and their most optimal times are still around the ~1:33.5, not improving.

[Rikhart]

Red Bull loves to spend massive amounts of time in the pits. Could it be another issue, or just changing something?

[pantherxxx]

I have high hopes for Red Bull. The car is already fast, and if they can outdevelop their rivals like last year, this season will be fun.

[organic]

I have high hopes for Red Bull. The car is already fast, and if they can outdevelop their rivals like last year, this season will be fun.

The car doesn't have many interesting bits and pieces from what I can see, at least at surface level.

[Dee]

I have high hopes for Red Bull. The car is already fast, and if they can outdevelop their rivals like last year, this season will be fun.

The car doesn't have many interesting bits and pieces from what I can see, at least at surface level.

Where are you putting the team atm? 4th fastest or nearer to the podium?

I like that it seems to be good at the starts, the engine is good and that the deg is low even though atm, we don't know how fast they can go over a race distance...

[pantherxxx]

https://x.com/formuLau16/status/2024471 ... 23224?s=20

Verstappen pushing lap onboard. Balance looks fairly good? Small corrections here and there.

[Cassius]

Pretty equal stint 1 between Piastri and Verstappen. I feel Piastri is slightly faster.

Also the ease Mercedes and Ferrari are setting their laps brings me to the belief Merc and Ferrari are fastest, Mclaren behind and then RB (like Mekies is saying).

Looking forward to remaining race sim lap times.

[Vettel165]

https://x.com/formuLau16/status/2024471 ... 23224?s=20

Verstappen pushing lap onboard. Balance looks fairly good? Small corrections here and there.

Looking good.

[pantherxxx]

James Vowles on F1TV:

"There are games being played. Red Bull looked really good until we spoke about their power unit then they've turned it down quite a bit since then."

Could be true. Hadjar top speed only higher than the Astons yesterday.

[Cassius]

Pretty equal stint 1 between Piastri and Verstappen. I feel Piastri is slightly faster.

Also the ease Mercedes and Ferrari are setting their laps brings me to the belief Merc and Ferrari are fastest, Mclaren behind and then RB (like Mekies is saying).

Looking forward to remaining race sim lap times.

Piastri seems 0.5s faster on the hard stint 2...

[Juzh]

https://x.com/formuLau16/status/2024471 ... 23224?s=20

Verstappen pushing lap onboard. Balance looks fairly good? Small corrections here and there.

Looking good.

he did a faster lap later which was also replayed as full onboard, a 1:33.1. I'll post it later.

[Paa]

If anything, the laptimes seem consistent.
I hope there will be a summary at the end of the day, but whenever I look at it, there seem to be consistent within a stint.

[chrisc90]

Looks a strong lap to be fair.