2026 Oracle Red Bull Racing F1 Team

[Vettel165]

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

Quite cool how much kerbs can Max take, in 2024 that was a major problem. Also I see a good front-end in that car. Not looking bad, but they need to lose some weight. In interview Max was happy with the car, he usually is very direct. If it was bad he would said it. Engine is better than expected, which is very positive.

2:05 starting him talking about the car.

[f1Follower]

When does Budget cap kick in? Does Hadjar shunting in Barcelona cost the team and by how much?

[lio007]

When does Budget cap kick in? Does Hadjar shunting in Barcelona cost the team and by how much?

AFAIK 1st January

[Henk_v]

Only parts brought to the track on race weekends count right?

[lio007]

Only parts brought to the track on race weekends count right?

I'm not sure if it's just race weekends or in general bolted on the car and hit the track running irrelevant on the type of event (testing, race weekend,...).

[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.

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.

Higher fuel level would also slow them in S2.

[organic]

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.

Higher fuel level would also slow them in S2.

Red bull did a full race simulation, meaning fuel levels are known.

Having an overweight car would also be disadvantageous in S2.

[Seanspeed]

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.

Higher fuel level would also slow them in S2.

Red bull did a full race simulation, meaning fuel levels are known.

Having an overweight car would also be disadvantageous in S2.

Was he also down in S2 in the race sim? I was actually paying attention to laptimes when that was happening, but admittedly wasn't paying attention to specific sector times.

As far as I understand, the S2 concerns come almost entirely from low(er) fuel run comparisons.

[euv2]

Lap 2 on the medium stint between PIA and MAX

Lap 13 on the hard stint


This is from the race sim, I looked at a lot of other laps and noticed a few trends.

Piastri generally faster in turn 1, massively faster in the high speed t5, t6, t7, this is where the sector 2 delta most lies.
Max quite a bit faster in t11, t13 and sometimes slightly faster in t14 and mostly recovers time in sector 3 and sector 1 by a lesser margin.
Their performance is the slower turn 8 and turn 10 is pretty similar.

MCL usually deploys more out of turn 11 which improves sector 2, whilst RBR deploys on the following straight which improves sector 3.

Their slow corners performance is very similar if we exclude t1. In turn 1 Max is probably harvesting a bit more maybe by super clipping on some laps.

[euv2]

https://racingnews365.nl/einde-nadert-v ... t=14261806
New wind tunnel still on track for late 26 upto early 27.

Waché emphasized the extensive time, effort, and investment that has gone into the new facility. "To reduce the correlation problem in the near future, the team has invested a lot in the new wind tunnel, in order to have the best tunnel in the field," adds the 51-year-old.

Wonder what improvements allow it to be the best WT, compared to relatively new WTs from MCL and Aston Martin.

[Seanspeed]

Lap 2 on the medium stint between PIA and MAX
https://postimg.cc/zVtnBJN2
Lap 13 on the hard stint
https://postimg.cc/MnqbNcdP

This is from the race sim, I looked at a lot of other laps and noticed a few trends.

Piastri generally faster in turn 1, massively faster in the high speed t5, t6, t7, this is where the sector 2 delta most lies.
Max quite a bit faster in t11, t13 and sometimes slightly faster in t14 and mostly recovers time in sector 3 and sector 1 by a lesser margin.
Their performance is the slower turn 8 and turn 10 is pretty similar.

MCL usually deploys more out of turn 11 which improves sector 2, whilst RBR deploys on the following straight which improves sector 3.

Their slow corners performance is very similar if we exclude t1. In turn 1 Max is probably harvesting a bit more maybe by super clipping on some laps.

Cheers for that, great information.

This would suggest lacking some high speed corner performance in S2 potentially, yea. Though I could also maybe read that as Max taking it easy at the start of a stint in the high speed section on softer tires he also had to 'qualify' on, since the same deficit doesn't exist on the lap 13 sample.

Being stronger in T11 is interesting, though. It's one of the only sort of low-to-medium speed corner entry on the track, and is something you'll see a lot more of in the rest of the calendar. It had also been a particular strength of Mclaren's the past season and a half or so.

[pantherxxx]

Wache also said that in the new regs, there's far less chance for correlation issues. Although there's still a small chance.

[venkyhere]

Lap 2 on the medium stint between PIA and MAX
https://postimg.cc/zVtnBJN2
Lap 13 on the hard stint
https://postimg.cc/MnqbNcdP

This is from the race sim, I looked at a lot of other laps and noticed a few trends.

Piastri generally faster in turn 1, massively faster in the high speed t5, t6, t7, this is where the sector 2 delta most lies.
Max quite a bit faster in t11, t13 and sometimes slightly faster in t14 and mostly recovers time in sector 3 and sector 1 by a lesser margin.
Their performance is the slower turn 8 and turn 10 is pretty similar.

MCL usually deploys more out of turn 11 which improves sector 2, whilst RBR deploys on the following straight which improves sector 3.

Their slow corners performance is very similar if we exclude t1. In turn 1 Max is probably harvesting a bit more maybe by super clipping on some laps.

Good comparison.
That said, being part of a full race stint, we know the fuel-load, but we have no idea about the PU 'mode' used. Plus, the drivers can decide the 'push level' with their A/B pedals and either drive like they are chasing/defending their race position or drive like they are 'driving their own race' in a locked-in race position. The biggest sandbagging comes from driver inputs, so we don't really know who is faster overall, just from test laptimes. I guess FP2 in Melbourne will give us a good 'race-sim' picture

[venkyhere]

@euv2
Since we are on the topic,
here is an example of 'final stint lowered fuel load' laps chosen at random (over multiple days) from Bahrain test2 :



In general,
- McLaren recharging on the straights & deploying in the ~100kph&below slow corners (only exception = bad entry into final 2 corners)
- Redbull recharging in the corners and deploying on the straights, their corner entry for speeds in-n-around 100kph is particularly bad (due to lifting very early for recharge or purposely being too sedate)
- Ferrari and Mercedes doing a 'more even spread' of deployment/recharge over corners/straights

Of particular interest is the medium speed T5-6-7 :
- Ferrari and Mercedes doing well here, McLaren and Redbull losing 0.25-0.30 in this small zone
- not sure whether it's because the McL40 and RB22 are 'unbalanced' here or whether they are hiding pace via 'driver input' or via recharge

Of particular interest is the high speed T11-12-13 :
- it's now Ferrari and McLaren, who look 'unbalanced' or recharging and losing 0.20-0.25 in this long corner
- Mercedes looks good
- Redbull has throttle pinned and doing some heavy recharging, doesn't look like the car is handicapped by anything other than recharge to the tune of losing 0.25

Overall, the feeling I get is that McLaren and Redbull are hiding pace either via needlessly high recharge rate or via driving too sedately , whilst Ferrari and Mercedes being 'faithful' to the car.

In conclusion, can we infer whatever reasons I inferred to be 'true' ? No. That's because we have no way to differentiate whether the 'limitations' that we see in the lap traces are due to the drivers or due to the deployment-strategy / aero-capabilty deltas. To me, looks like race stints (even Q) are going to be like chess-games between the teams, with less onus on drivers' "grip sensing capability" and more on "cerebral capability".

[chrisc90]

Does it really matter how fast you are cornering since the chance to overtake is very low? So might aswell recharge and use more on the straight?