2026 Oracle Red Bull Racing F1 Team

[Badger]

Leclerc usually doesn't do politics but I guess he's being overly cautious because he might actually have a chance.

That has nothing to do with politics, rather mental trauma. Max has been beating the poor lad all his life. Now he wants everyone to know in advance that if Max finishes ahead of his it is only because “Red Bull is faster than Ferrari”, not because Max is faster or better overall than him. He’s been like that for years, how could you not notice.
Russell actually has been more direct and honest in the peast to his credit. On those occasions where Mercedes did indeed have the fastest car (and faster than red bulll) he was never shy to call it even when it was not really that clear-cut obvious and advantage looked marginal and he got beaten by Max individual superiority. Canada 2024 being a prime example. Give me one single example where Leclerc says Max beat him in a slower car. I will wait But George has never been in a position to fight for the championship before, hence why this year his approach might be different, at least for now. Leclerc’s default agenda is and has always been that Red Bull is faster than Ferrari.

Leclerc is nothing like George and Lando in this department. He does play the game a bit but it's not in his nature to tell bold-faced lies in front of a microphone. He has a terrible poker face.

[avantman]

Let me translate that for you:
“I don’t want to be the favourite even if I should be. I’m terrified of losing to Verstappen in a slower car so I’m going to pretend his car is amazing”.

Yeah just like Verstappen in a slower car (that won 6 of the last 9 races comfortably) beat Lando last year for championship.

2024 showed Max can win in a worse car. 2025 showed Max can take it to the final race in a much worse car. That's why George is talking like this, he needs the "RB is super strong" narrative to protect himself just in case Verstappen starts beating him in a year where no one was expecting RB to be competing at the front.

George is making absolute sense effectively naming Verstappen his main rival because that is the driver who was either 1st or 2nd in the championship for the past 6 straight years despite having the best car for like a season and a half over that period. I deliberately counted 2020 as only appalling reliability prevented MV of finishing 2nd on paper.

[avantman]

Leclerc usually doesn't do politics but I guess he's being overly cautious because he might actually have a chance.

That has nothing to do with politics, rather mental trauma. Max has been beating the poor lad all his life. Now he wants everyone to know in advance that if Max finishes ahead of his it is only because “Red Bull is faster than Ferrari”, not because Max is faster or better overall than him. He’s been like that for years, how could you not notice.
Russell actually has been more direct and honest in the peast to his credit. On those occasions where Mercedes did indeed have the fastest car (and faster than red bulll) he was never shy to call it even when it was not really that clear-cut obvious and advantage looked marginal and he got beaten by Max individual superiority. Canada 2024 being a prime example. Give me one single example where Leclerc says Max beat him in a slower car. I will wait But George has never been in a position to fight for the championship before, hence why this year his approach might be different, at least for now. Leclerc’s default agenda is and has always been that Red Bull is faster than Ferrari.

Leclerc is nothing like George and Lando in this department. He does play the game a bit but it's not in his nature to tell bold-faced lies in front of a microphone. He has a terrible poker face.

As I said he might be worse in that regard than both. Both G and L admitted openly on numerous occasions they got beaten by Max (either in Qualifying or in Race) having the faster package. Same cannot be said about Charles. It’s always either Ferrari fault or Red Bull was simply faster. And it’s not like this is blatant lying, rather self-brainwashing, sorts of. Both G and L called Max the best and the current reference point on multiple occasions. Charles never did that. In any case he cannot be considered any better than those two in that sense - in overhyping the rival car and downplaying his own machinery. Max himself is no different but he at least has all the right and all sorts of confirmations to believe he is indeed the best and could be behind anyone only if his car is slower.

[ali623]

According to Russell, it's not Mercedes, but Red Bull that's hiding their speed!

Russell: "I don't think there was any 'dirty tricks' being played on our side during testing. We stuck faithfully to our preparation plans for two weeks; we never changed the amount of fuel in our tank or the power of our engine. When testing, we didn't put in any special effort to show ourselves as faster or slower than we actually are. To be honest, Red Bull was suspiciously slow in the second tests. Whereas in the first tests, we'd seen them as clearly the fastest team by a mile. According to our calculations, in the second tests, they fell back by about 0.7 seconds from their own speeds. We and Ferrari, on the other hand, gained about 0.2-0.3 seconds thanks to a few new parts fitted to the car. It's really hard to understand how a team could slow down that much in just one week. That's why I think they're actually very, very strong and hiding their true speed. We're all dying with curiosity to see what happens."

@KemalSengulll

Hamilton suggesting the same thing:

The paddock consensus is Ferrari and Mercedes are favourites for the first race in Melbourne, although Hamilton hinted Red Bull may have been sandbagging when asked about his realistic ambitions.

"Mercedes looks particularly quick, and I'm not really sure whether we have seen the full unleashed Red Bull yet, so it's really, really exciting.

https://www.skysports.com/f1/news/12474 ... grand-prix

[Badger]

Who knows, maybe RB has pulled off the most convincing sandbag of all time. Maybe they ran their race sim with 15 extra kg of fuel and a turned down engine I suspect not but we won't have to wait much longer to find out.

[AR3-GP]

Who knows, maybe RB has pulled off the most convincing sandbag of all time. Maybe they ran their race sim with 15 extra kg of fuel and a turned down engine I suspect not but we won't have to wait much longer to find out.

I tried to imagine this, but there's no reason to design a fuel tank that big.

[Badger]

Who knows, maybe RB has pulled off the most convincing sandbag of all time. Maybe they ran their race sim with 15 extra kg of fuel and a turned down engine I suspect not but we won't have to wait much longer to find out.

I tried to imagine this, but there's no reason to design a fuel tank that big.

Yeah I guess, but if you really wanted extra weight you could just add ballast.

[AR3-GP]

Who knows, maybe RB has pulled off the most convincing sandbag of all time. Maybe they ran their race sim with 15 extra kg of fuel and a turned down engine I suspect not but we won't have to wait much longer to find out.

I tried to imagine this, but there's no reason to design a fuel tank that big.

Yeah I guess, but if you really wanted extra weight you could just add ballast.

That would actually make sense, but not sure it applies to Red Bull.

[venkyhere]

I tried to imagine this, but there's no reason to design a fuel tank that big.

Yeah I guess, but if you really wanted extra weight you could just add ballast.

That would actually make sense.

[pantherxxx]

Hadjar said the car is good, and he will fight for podium. Already at first race.

https://x.com/RBR_Daily/status/2029478267804127523?s=20

[avantman]

Hadjar said the car is good, and he will fight for podium.

This is not what he actually said.

[FittingMechanics]

Hadjar said the car is good, and he will fight for podium.

This is not what he actually said.

Yeah. He doesn't seem that optimistic in my opinion, he just smiles a lot. He said reliability may be an issue for all teams and that just finishing the race would be a good start. He is aiming for a podium but doesn't know where they stand.

I'm quite surprised that they are all worried about reliability after there were not a lot of serious obvious breakdowns in 9 days of testing.

[AnotherAlex]

...
Give me one single example where Leclerc says Max beat him in a slower car. I will wait
...

Give me one single example where Russell says Verstappen beat him in a slower car. I will wait.

Whilst there have been plenty of occasions where Verstappen has finished ahead of Charles, for most of their time in F1 the Red Bull has been faster than the Ferrari, and when Charles loses out due to a mistake of his own, he's the first to admit it. (Perhaps not quite to Lando's level of self-recrimination, but he doesn't hide behind invented excuses.)

Anyway, none of that nonsense gives any indication who has the fastest car this year (which I fear will be Mercedes). Both Max and Charles have consistently shown that they can 'out perform' their cars, so hopefully both the Red Bull and Ferrari will be competitive and we see some good racing.

[Cassius]

Hadjar said the car is good, and he will fight for podium.

This is not what he actually said.

Yeah. He doesn't seem that optimistic in my opinion, he just smiles a lot. He said reliability may be an issue for all teams and that just finishing the race would be a good start. He is aiming for a podium but doesn't know where they stand.

I'm quite surprised that they are all worried about reliability after there were not a lot of serious obvious breakdowns in 9 days of testing.

It is top of his mind because Hadjar was particularly hit by the few reliability issues RB had during testing.

[Farnborough]

This is not what he actually said.

Yeah. He doesn't seem that optimistic in my opinion, he just smiles a lot. He said reliability may be an issue for all teams and that just finishing the race would be a good start. He is aiming for a podium but doesn't know where they stand.

I'm quite surprised that they are all worried about reliability after there were not a lot of serious obvious breakdowns in 9 days of testing.

It is top of his mind because Hadjar was particularly hit by the few reliability issues RB had during testing.

Were any of them run "full bleed" for anything like a race distance ? No gaps, no let up ?