2026 Oracle Red Bull Racing F1 Team

[AR3-GP]

I dont think anything is 'clear' at all regarding the top four teams. Gaps in testing performance have not been nearly big enough to pick out even a rough running order.

Bahrain pre-season race sims have predicted the contenders in the opening part of the season for the last 4 years.

[f1isgood]

I dont know. Red Bull seem like a big unknown to me. As somebody else says, you can easily slow cornering performance by always running with a moderate amount of fuel onboard during faster laps. And we know Red Bull are sandbagging hard on the power unit since that first day. They could easily be way more competitive than it seems.

Slightly more illuminating was them being a bit slower than Mclaren during Verstappen's race sim, as you cant exactly run more fuel there, but there are still other ways to disguise pace.

I think its pretty clear they're not fighting Ferrari/Mercedes. Where they are wrt McLaren remains to be seen. McLaren so far have been a bit disappointing. They should have had an easy transition really and looked like Ferrari (imo). I think they're lacking a bit when compared to Ferrari.

I dont think anything is 'clear' at all regarding the top four teams. Gaps in testing performance have not been nearly big enough to pick out even a rough running order.

Unless you think Red Bull are hiding a second a lap in race pace when compared to Ferrari it's actually pretty clear. I dont know why you think its unclear. Leclercs stint in the heat was chef's kiss today. It was like the one Lando did last year going low 1.33s and 1.32s in the race stint. Nothing that Red Bull have shown indicates they're l close enough to threaten Leclerc.

Maybe things will change by the time we get to Bahrain as its more than a month away.

[AR3-GP]

I think it won't be fair to evaluate the chassis until they reach the weight limit.

[AR3-GP]

One thing that might have improved on the chassis side (or maybe it's the regs) is the curbs. It looks much easier to drive over them now. This is the turn 8 hairpin. Top is pole lap from 2024. Bottom is lap from thursday:

[venkyhere]

Interesting point. But how do you know it's intentional car placement v/s understeer

[FittingMechanics]

All the cars can use more kerbs now. Floors are less sensitive. This was quite visible in testing.

[bluechris]

They sure seems they can use more curb but maybe it's better to avoid it because of the huge torque that they have now? I don't think i saw anyone in the test accelerating on the curbs like last year, i think they are a bit on the cautious side still till they be able to optimize the torque delivery.

[f1Follower]

In qualifying boost mode will be active which is just like DRS to give additional boost to all the cars. Was Ferrari running with boost mode in qualifying runs? I don't think Mercedes and Ferrari have shown their hand.

[venkyhere]

https://racingnews365.com/max-verstappe ... ighlighted

“As a team, it was good to focus on longer run performance today,” the four-time champion said.

“We made some adjustments to the set up, which has given us some good direction overnight. Having a full day of running was positive.

“The tyres are super sensitive, so there’s still a lot of analysis required there.”

Friday will mark the final dayof on-track action before the sport heads to Australia for the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix.

Verstappen asserted Red Bull's primary focus is on getting as many laps on the board as it can as it wraps up its test programme.

“On Friday, we will aim to get as many laps as we can between us,” he said.

I think something went awry or they changed their 'as many laps' plan on Friday morning. Look at this pictorial representation of the test2 :

[euv2]

Seems about right. Might be 3rd best depending on track. Better in race than qualy too

[f1isgood]

Seems about right. Might be 3rd best depending on track. Better in race than qualy too

They are not passing anyone on track this year. Its joever. P? and P8 for the foreseeable future.

[euv2]

They are not passing anyone on track this year. Its joever. P? and P8 for the foreseeable future.

Let's wait and see what the upgrades bring, they have been shouting about heavy in season development from the get go, updates every race apparently.

That alongside steady weight reduction might get them close to the top by mid season. Will see how well Mercedes and Ferrari develop in season, besides Mcl in the last 2 years everyone has been hit and miss but I'm expecting everyone to find lap time so early in the regs, only difference will be how much.

One thing that I fear is how similar FER and MERC look concept wise, if they copy each other's solutions that might speed up their cars more than RBR who have a more outlier concept.

[venkyhere]

Well, after looking at the 'fastest laps' data (of the entire testing), I am now starting to doubt my "RB22 = 4th fastest" conclusion. Spent some time analyzing VER's fastest lap from day3 against LEC's from day3 and ANT's from day2.
While it's generally understood that Mercedes is holding back a lot compared to other teams, and Ferrari is revealing a lot (still not full beans) compared to other teams, the below lap traces are interesting :



- In the slow corners 1 and 10, LEC using his typical both-pedals-overlap to rotate the car (like he does in a Q lap) results in a cumulative loss of around 0.6-0.7 to both ANT & VER.

- The medium speed section 5-6-7 is the hardest to judge from this chart alone, wr.t how much is deploy-recharge v/s how much is chassis balance or weight, affecting the time spent here

- However the straights and the 11-12-13 long corners are the most interesting. Different locations to deploy/recharge, seems like. However, generally speaking, LEC is deploying a lot in the straights, while the other two are most probably super-clipping and recharging the battery. And VER seems to be the guy recharging heavily, ANT moderately. Assuming LEC has maintained the rulebook 4MJ max SoC swing ; I have my suspicions about the SoC swing window being smaller than 4MJ for the other two, so as to hide pace (VER to a larger extent than ANT).

Hence I am inclined to form a takeaway that it's not only Mercedes, the Redbull is also hiding quite a lot of pace (atleast in Q sims, if not the R sims). Let me know whether I am being an idiot.

[Dee]

Well, after looking at the 'fastest laps' data (of the entire testing), I am now starting to doubt my "RB22 = 4th fastest" conclusion. Spent some time analyzing VER's fastest lap from day3 against LEC's from day3 and ANT's from day2.
While it's generally understood that Mercedes is holding back a lot compared to other teams, and Ferrari is revealing a lot (still not full beans) compared to other teams, the below lap traces are interesting :

https://i.ibb.co/kgxvrgZr/Bahrain-test2 ... t-laps.png

- In the slow corners 1 and 10, LEC using his typical both-pedals-overlap to rotate the car (like he does in a Q lap) results in a cumulative loss of around 0.6-0.7 to both ANT & VER.

- The medium speed section 5-6-7 is the hardest to judge from this chart alone, wr.t how much is deploy-recharge v/s how much is chassis balance or weight, affecting the time spent here

- However the straights and the 11-12-13 long corners are the most interesting. Different locations to deploy/recharge, seems like. However, generally speaking, LEC is deploying a lot in the straights, while the other two are most probably super-clipping and recharging the battery. And VER seems to be the guy recharging heavily, ANT moderately. Assuming LEC has maintained the rulebook 4MJ max SoC swing ; I have my suspicions about the SoC swing window being smaller than 4MJ for the other two, so as to hide pace (VER to a larger extent than ANT).

Hence I am inclined to form a takeaway that it's not only Mercedes, the Redbull is also hiding quite a lot of pace (atleast in Q sims, if not the R sims). Let me know whether I am being an idiot.

It's come out that Mercedes customer teams were not running with the newest upgraded engine during testing, so I still see RBR 3rd come race day. Merc, Ferrari/Mclaren, RBR..

If RBR can leapfrog any of those ahead of them, I will be very surprised.

[AR3-GP]

Well, after looking at the 'fastest laps' data (of the entire testing), I am now starting to doubt my "RB22 = 4th fastest" conclusion. Spent some time analyzing VER's fastest lap from day3 against LEC's from day3 and ANT's from day2.
While it's generally understood that Mercedes is holding back a lot compared to other teams, and Ferrari is revealing a lot (still not full beans) compared to other teams, the below lap traces are interesting :

https://i.ibb.co/kgxvrgZr/Bahrain-test2 ... t-laps.png

- In the slow corners 1 and 10, LEC using his typical both-pedals-overlap to rotate the car (like he does in a Q lap) results in a cumulative loss of around 0.6-0.7 to both ANT & VER.

- The medium speed section 5-6-7 is the hardest to judge from this chart alone, wr.t how much is deploy-recharge v/s how much is chassis balance or weight, affecting the time spent here

- However the straights and the 11-12-13 long corners are the most interesting. Different locations to deploy/recharge, seems like. However, generally speaking, LEC is deploying a lot in the straights, while the other two are most probably super-clipping and recharging the battery. And VER seems to be the guy recharging heavily, ANT moderately. Assuming LEC has maintained the rulebook 4MJ max SoC swing ; I have my suspicions about the SoC swing window being smaller than 4MJ for the other two, so as to hide pace (VER to a larger extent than ANT).

Hence I am inclined to form a takeaway that it's not only Mercedes, the Redbull is also hiding quite a lot of pace (atleast in Q sims, if not the R sims). Let me know whether I am being an idiot.

It's testing. It's better not to overthink the telemetry from the quick laps. No one has done any serious laps.