2026 Oracle Red Bull Racing F1 Team

[Emag]

More about diverting attention, which I think it's almost inevitable in F1 as teams will look into anything they deem interesting, even from the bottom of the gird, sandbagging is about not giving your competitors a clear target they can aim for. If you know you have a lot of pace in hand, it's also a good strategy to try and misslead competitors into thinking they're better than you. It delays their reaction.

[AR3-GP]

More about diverting attention, which I think it's almost inevitable in F1 as teams will look into anything they deem interesting, even from the bottom of the gird, sandbagging is about not giving your competitors a clear target they can aim for. If you know you have a lot of pace in hand, it's also a good strategy to try and misslead competitors into thinking they're better than you. It delays their reaction.

There are some things which can't be hidden at the end of the day. Certain teams did long runs with virtually no degradation or showed good pace on old tires. That's usually enough to work things out every pre-season.

[Dee]

Do we know anything about RBR's Boost mode?

Overtake mode is limited to the same power for everyone but boost mode, the full energy of the hybrid power unit can be deployed and the only limiting factor is how long it takes to re-energise..

[Seanspeed]

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.

Leclerc's stint was a 3 stop, and Red Bull are so very obviously sandbagging massively on their PU.

[Seanspeed]

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.

Only when there were clear winners. We dont have any such thing this time. There's too many caveats this time around, and the new regulations allow teams to have way more sandbagging potential than before.

Do you really think Red Bull have suddenly stopped being capable of 344kph on the straight? That 312kph is their real potential?

[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.

Only when there were clear winners. We dont have any such thing this time. There's too many caveats this time around, and the new regulations allow teams to have way more sandbagging potential than before.

Do you really think Red Bull have suddenly stopped being capable of 344kph on the straight? That 312kph is their real potential?

Any car can do 344kph on a straight at any time by using all of the battery in that straight. That's not the fastest way to do a lap and fans will have to learn that. The best laptime comes when the electric energy is split semi-evenly across all corner exits instead of using all of it at just 1 or 2 corner exits.

I know Ferrari fans are terrified of looking their gift horse in the mouth because they can't believe that it's real, but Ferrari is fast, possibly even as faster than Mercedes. It's obvious even to amateur.

[dialtone]

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.

Leclerc's stint was a 3 stop, and Red Bull are so very obviously sandbagging massively on their PU.

he didn't quite need the 3 stop, he was seeing very little degradation in his laps, especially his 2nd stint was a 1:38.5 every lap which is really indicating he wasn't pushing the tires too much.

[SoulPancake13]

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.

Leclerc's stint was a 3 stop, and Red Bull are so very obviously sandbagging massively on their PU.

he didn't quite need the 3 stop, he was seeing very little degradation in his laps, especially his 2nd stint was a 1:38.5 every lap which is really indicating he wasn't pushing the tires too much.

Even still, the sim was just as fast overall time wise as Piastri's (faster than Verstappen's) the day before even adding in the extra pitstop in almost 20C hotter track.

I don't doubt teams are hiding, but race sims on full fuel loads have always been pretty indicative of good performance. Red Bull are overweight, so once they lose that weight I am sure they will be right up there.

[Henk_v]

I assume come race 1 a few rabbits will escape their hats...

[Juzh]

There was quite a bit of sandbagging going on with the PU on Friday. This is a comparison between Max’s fastest lap on Thursday vs Friday (blue). Both 1:33.1s.
https://i.postimg.cc/nrxDg1jL/IMG-2798.png Around half a second judging by the delta.

To me that looks like a different deployment and not a sandbag.

Nope, there is no back and forth between those laps. He is just slower in pretty much every straight. The loss you mention up to T4 is due to bad exit in the white lap. Maybe wheelspin, or losing the rear end out of T2.

We have an onboard of the lap in question. Missed apex in T1, then oversteering out of T2.

https://streamable.com/eiwn87

[Wouter]

In the meantime Yuki is in San Francisco and did yesterday a showrun and more.


a day in the Bay thanks for having us, San Francisco

: Red Bull Showrun presented by @fordracing

Slice 4, 7 and 9 are videos.



Video from a happy Yuki.



Not everything went well.



Video

[f1isgood]

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.

Leclerc's stint was a 3 stop, and Red Bull are so very obviously sandbagging massively on their PU.

A forced 3 stop. You can always stare at lap times before the third stop. Red Bull were losing in S2. As much as there might be sandbagging thats just aero losses.

[chrisc90]

Is there any S2 laptime telemetry to see where the time is lost?

[f1isgood]

Is there any S2 laptime telemetry to see where the time is lost?

I think its a little bit everywhere. Mostly in medium speed and traction zones - something Pierre Wache mentioned.

[Xyz22]

You should compare laps done in race trim in a full race sim.
Single lap in testing is not reliable as there could be big differences in terms of fuel load.