2026 Oracle Red Bull Racing F1 Team

[Valeo]

https://www.auto-motor-und-sport.de/for ... melbourne/

Wache says the gap to Mercedes can be overcome and repeats the expected deficit of 0,3 Max might have had.
Also says (again) there is more time to find on the chassis side, not engine.

Of course he would speak in such manner. Not only he is naturally the next to follow Horner, but also someone should take on Helmut’s role and talk delusional overoptimistic rubbish to the media.

Wache is surely not the guy with delusional overoptimistic statements, as we know from the past. More like the complete opposite.

[f1isgood]

It all sounds like Red Bull have a real shot at fighting for wins at some point this year. Let's hope the GPs in Jeddah and Bahrain get cancelled.

[pantherxxx]

0.3 seconds can be overcome with weight reduction and aggressive aero development through a season.

[f1isgood]

0.3 seconds can be overcome with weight reduction and aggressive aero development through a season.

I think weight reduction alone will put Red Bull there.

[Badger]

0.3 seconds can be overcome with weight reduction and aggressive aero development through a season.

I think weight reduction alone will put Red Bull there.

Have you been hijacked? You went from one of the most pessimistic people on the forum to an optimist, in the same day.

[Badger]

I don't know whether to believe that 3 tenths figure, it's where I put them in my pre season predictions but having seen Merc in full action it would have required a hell of a lap from Max. 4-5 tenths seems more realistic to me.

That being said, Wache is correct that the bulk of the deficit lies on the chassis side and not in the PU.

[TNTHead]

If kinetic energy recory is so crucal why did they only do that on the rear axle? It could have been front hub motors so you dont need drive shafts at the front axle.
I think for harvesting you want to be as close as possible to a lockup on the rear axle. But for VER they went a bit too aggressive, apparently.

[AR3-GP]

Of course he would speak in such manner. Not only he is naturally the next to follow Horner, but also someone should take on Helmut’s role and talk delusional overoptimistic rubbish to the media.

tough crowd...

[Badger]

Of course he would speak in such manner. Not only he is naturally the next to follow Horner, but also someone should take on Helmut’s role and talk delusional overoptimistic rubbish to the media.

tough crowd...

Give Waché some credit. His "overoptimistic delusions" almost came true last year. Well they did come true in terms of performance at least.

[f1isgood]

0.3 seconds can be overcome with weight reduction and aggressive aero development through a season.

I think weight reduction alone will put Red Bull there.

Have you been hijacked? You went from one of the most pessimistic people on the forum to an optimist, in the same day.

I try to be realistic and I didn't have any reason to be optimistic from what I had seen so far. I think Wache is generally a realistic person. If he says 3 tenths, I believe it's 3 tenths. And Red Bull are at least 10 kilograms overweight, so that equals out. Although, personally I think they need to find more on the chassis.

I think races getting cancelled might be a blessing in disguise and part of my "optimism" comes from the simple fact that Red Bull might be the second best team after all at least in front limited tracks. I expected more of the strong technical team at McLaren and Ferrari seemed to show a lot of potential at Bahrain in the long runs than Red Bull

[AR3-GP]

I don't think Wache is overoptimistic. The Mercedes project is more mature on the both the chassis and PU side. RBPT and the RB22 have been put into service about 1 month too early. There are details that have to be resolved such as reaching the minimum weight and extracting the full performance from the PU on hardware and software sides. They are a new PU manufacturer. Mercedes knows more about these hybrids than anyone.

[Badger]

I wouldn't discount Ferrari yet as a second force. Their engine seems to be squarely behind RBPT but their chassis is the only one that can match Merc in the corners at this stage. On a less energy starved track they should be good.

[Valeo]

I read most teams expect to gain a whooping 2 seconds in terms of development untill Abu Dhabi, so it's not a matter of if but more like how fast (or faster) than the others they could get there.

[vorticism]

So the FIA's ECU bogged down Verstappen’s engine during FP while traffic was zooming by at 150kph and then shunted his power unit into T1 Q3 of the first quali of the season?

[avantman]

https://www.auto-motor-und-sport.de/for ... melbourne/

Wache says the gap to Mercedes can be overcome and repeats the expected deficit of 0,3 Max might have had.
Also says (again) there is more time to find on the chassis side, not engine.

Of course he would speak in such manner. Not only he is naturally the next to follow Horner, but also someone should take on Helmut’s role and talk delusional overoptimistic rubbish to the media. Who cares how much behind slow, green Kimi Max would be? Who?

Wache is surely not the guy with delusional overoptimistic statements, as we know from the past. More like the complete opposite.

Past is past, I was speaking on the present time and the future.
Saying Max would be 3 tenths off Mercedes means 5 tenths ahead of Hadjar. What exactly makes him think Max would be that much faster in Q3 given he didn’t even set a single lap time in Q1? Did he look that much faster once over the course of this weekend?
Ok. Let’s assume Wache knows exactly what he’s speaking about and has the data that proves that Hadjar ducked up basically big time in Q3 and left a lot of lap time on the table. Then all the people praising him so much are delusional, rather than Wache because by no means 5 tenths is acceptable let alone respectable margin on such short/quick bellow 80 seconds lap.

Of course there is also a probability Wache was referring to another, slower Mercedes of Kimi. That doesn’t make him sound delusional, but brings us back to the first point I made. Him being the very next in the line to follow Horner wants to present things in such way that makes the things sound better and more optimistic than they are.