2026 Oracle Red Bull Racing F1 Team

[avantman]

chassis aside, which is at very best 3rd best (for now, might become 4th very soon), It doesn’t look to me like RBPT is overall better PU than Ferrari as some experts were in a hurry to claim analyzing those useless open source overlays from the only Q session of the season . If you ask anyone at Ferrari I doubt they would agree with that claim.
This sort of advantage Mercedes has vs even the 2nd fastest car, let alone RBR tells me it is delusional even to dream it could be lost within one year. Who will be next to follow the footsteps of Horner and Mario to leave the team. Max or Wache? Will Max move to Mercedes. These are the only interesting topics for this year, when it comes to Red Bull racing.

If it continues like that at Mercedes then there's absolutely no reason for them to sign Max.

Marketing. Max is Lewis level of marketing. Only Charles is there close. But Lewis and Max are #1 in marketing/sales and that thing alone will bring massive money into Mercedes regardless of the contract Max would get. Speed wise George and Max are probably similar.

The main reason for having a driver like Max in your team is that your team won’t ever have to race against him. Marketing and the rest comes after.

[Sergej]

Weight reduction is pretty straightforward, but it may take much time to realize, remember 2022, they got completely rid of weight only with the the RB19.

[AR3-GP]

No more Lord Helmut to tell us what upgrades are coming. Mclaren has apparently already brought some weight reduction to the car, so there's some easy time to be made up vs the rest of the top teams.

https://postimg.cc/8fs7vQLG

Race pace with a lot of caveats, Max had to clear a lot of cars but also ran a 2 stop vs top 2. I'd say 0.5s seems about right. Will weight reductions on their own bring them with 0.2s? it would at least make them much more competitive. Hope we get some news about what's coming.

This figure is really flattering Mclaren and Red Bull . They were averaging 1 second a lap slower without tire offset when I watched in real time.

[nitrotech]

chassis aside, which is at very best 3rd best (for now, might become 4th very soon), It doesn’t look to me like RBPT is overall better PU than Ferrari as some experts were in a hurry to claim analyzing those useless open source overlays from the only Q session of the season . If you ask anyone at Ferrari I doubt they would agree with that claim.
This sort of advantage Mercedes has vs even the 2nd fastest car, let alone RBR tells me it is delusional even to dream it could be lost within one year. Who will be next to follow the footsteps of Horner and Mario to leave the team. Max or Wache? Will Max move to Mercedes. These are the only interesting topics for this year, when it comes to Red Bull racing.

If it continues like that at Mercedes then there's absolutely no reason for them to sign Max.

Marketing. Max is Lewis level of marketing. Only Charles is there close. But Lewis and Max are #1 in marketing/sales and that thing alone will bring massive money into Mercedes regardless of the contract Max would get. Speed wise George and Max are probably similar.

Are there any hard numbers for this marketing thing? I haven't seen any. But Lewis is the reason a lot of US audiences got onto F1 recently. He is an activist and generates buzz in various circles, including in Hollywood , music and fashion, none of which can be said about Max. In fact Lewis brought Tommy Hilfiger to Mercedes all on his own. Max's worth as a driver is great. Mercedes is a global brand that has presence in countries that have barely any clue about F1. It has already seen the likes of Michael Schumacher and Lewis Hamilton on their roaster. This intense efforts to position a driver as marketable, without hard stats is just driver liking, nothing more.

[Badger]

No more Lord Helmut to tell us what upgrades are coming. Mclaren has apparently already brought some weight reduction to the car, so there's some easy time to be made up vs the rest of the top teams.

https://postimg.cc/8fs7vQLG

Race pace with a lot of caveats, Max had to clear a lot of cars but also ran a 2 stop vs top 2. I'd say 0.5s seems about right. Will weight reductions on their own bring them with 0.2s? it would at least make them much more competitive. Hope we get some news about what's coming.

This figure is really flattering Mclaren and Red Bull . They were averaging 1 second a lap slower without tire offset when I watched in real time.

Obviously not, if they had been they would have been easily lapped when accounting for field spread and the double pit stop.

My guess is that Max finishes this race around 30 seconds behind George in a time trial. Probably half that is weight.

[Emag]

What's a ballpark laptime gain for 10 kg of weight? Maybe 0.3-0.4s per lap?

That might be enough to clear McLaren, but it feels like they need more than that to fight with Mercedes and Ferrari though.

[avantman]

If it continues like that at Mercedes then there's absolutely no reason for them to sign Max.

Marketing. Max is Lewis level of marketing. Only Charles is there close. But Lewis and Max are #1 in marketing/sales and that thing alone will bring massive money into Mercedes regardless of the contract Max would get. Speed wise George and Max are probably similar.

Are there any hard numbers for this marketing thing? I haven't seen any. But Lewis is the reason a lot of US audiences got onto F1 recently. He is an activist and generates buzz in various circles, including in Hollywood , music and fashion, none of which can be said about Max. In fact Lewis brought Tommy Hilfiger to Mercedes all on his own. Max's worth as a driver is great. Mercedes is a global brand that has presence in countries that have barely any clue about F1. It has already seen the likes of Michael Schumacher and Lewis Hamilton on their roaster. This intense efforts to position a driver as marketable, without hard stats is just driver liking, nothing more.

You ain’t need any numbers just look at the grandstands at any European race outside of the Island.

Last time I saw results of the pole co ducted by FOM online among the F1 few years ago, Ver was the most popular driver ahead of Norris and, as far as I remember, Ricciardo who was still at McLaren. That was prior to his years of dominance and before his Brazil-Perez meltdown in 2022 which turned lots of fans away from him. But, the last couple of years turned them all back plus added a lot of new people to his fan base. Hearing people singing Max Verstappen dududu song either at Monza or Brazil during the podium celebrations leaves basically no doubt he is now more popular than he’s ever been around the globe.

[euv2]

No more Lord Helmut to tell us what upgrades are coming. Mclaren has apparently already brought some weight reduction to the car, so there's some easy time to be made up vs the rest of the top teams.

https://postimg.cc/8fs7vQLG

Race pace with a lot of caveats, Max had to clear a lot of cars but also ran a 2 stop vs top 2. I'd say 0.5s seems about right. Will weight reductions on their own bring them with 0.2s? it would at least make them much more competitive. Hope we get some news about what's coming.

This figure is really flattering Mclaren and Red Bull . They were averaging 1 second a lap slower without tire offset when I watched in real time.

Mercedes definitely stopped pushing in the last 3rd of the race, esp. Russell. Maybe the gap to Red bull when both are pushing is closer to 0.8s. Max also said they suffered from graining, braking and steering so there's a few more things to get on top of.

[Sergej]

What's a ballpark laptime gain for 10 kg of weight? Maybe 0.3-0.4s per lap?

That might be enough to clear McLaren, but it feels like they need more than that to fight with Mercedes and Ferrari though.

yeah 10kg are more or less 3 tenths, then there are side benefits (like tyre deg, carry less fuel, etc)

not sure about McLaren, they will gain big time by optimizing the PU much faster than how Red Bull can reduce weight.

[AR3-GP]

What's a ballpark laptime gain for 10 kg of weight? Maybe 0.3-0.4s per lap?

That might be enough to clear McLaren, but it feels like they need more than that to fight with Mercedes and Ferrari though.

I think Red Bull is currently already in front of Mclaren. Verstappen seemed to just get stuck in Lando's dirty air, which drivers are saying is quite bad. Remember that he started on the back row and was within 0.5 second of Norris by the halfway point of the race. It's hard not to say that is evidence that Red Bull is a bit quicker.

[Emag]

What's a ballpark laptime gain for 10 kg of weight? Maybe 0.3-0.4s per lap?

That might be enough to clear McLaren, but it feels like they need more than that to fight with Mercedes and Ferrari though.

I think Red Bull is currently already in front of Mclaren. Verstappen seemed to just get stuck in Lando's dirty air, which drivers are saying is quite bad. Remember that he started on the back row and was within 0.5 second of Norris by the halfway point of the race. It's hard not to say that is evidence that Red Bull is a bit quicker.

https://i.postimg.cc/d0QCTb4p/image.png

I am not disputing that. It was clear RedBull had more pace than them today, it's just that these regulations are godawful and he couldn't overtake. I just meant "clear McLaren" as in remove them from the picture entirely.

[euv2]

Seems to track with what we've seen so far, Ferrari best chassis, Mercedes best engine & 2nd best chassis, Mcl 3rd, and Red bull 4th best.

[euv2]

https://x.com/RBRHub/status/2030531123894505625?s=20

Max says he started the race with an empty battery

"It was terrible, I had no battery left at all. Somehow I used up the entire battery during the formation lap. I don't know how it happened, but at the start, my battery was at zero, so there was no power at all. The car is quite good; we know there's potential. We're not bad on the engine side either. Right now, our shortcomings are split down the middle; half from the chassis, half from the engine. It's a surmountable situation, nothing shocking. I'm very negative about the regulations, but I'm proud of my team and the engine crew. They really did a fantastic job.

via:
@KemalSengulll

[avantman]

What's a ballpark laptime gain for 10 kg of weight? Maybe 0.3-0.4s per lap?

That might be enough to clear McLaren, but it feels like they need more than that to fight with Mercedes and Ferrari though.

I think Red Bull is currently already in front of Mclaren. Verstappen seemed to just get stuck in Lando's dirty air, which drivers are saying is quite bad. Remember that he started on the back row and was within 0.5 second of Norris by the halfway point of the race. It's hard not to say that is evidence that Red Bull is a bit quicker.

https://i.postimg.cc/d0QCTb4p/image.png

I am not disputing that. It was clear RedBull had more pace than them today, it's just that these regulations are godawful and he couldn't overtake. I just meant "clear McLaren" as in remove them from the picture entirely.

Not even vastly superior aero efficiency of his car could help him? How so? After Q some would thought he’d be breezing past anyone let alone slow Lando during the race.
Did anyone notice how quick was Brundle to dismiss Max (and his efforts) claiming overtake’s gonna be very easy on ‘much fresher tire’ and Lando could not do anything with it?

[AR3-GP]

The car is quite good; we know there's potential. We're not bad on the engine side either. Right now, our shortcomings are split down the middle; half from the chassis, half from the engine. It's a surmountable situation, nothing shocking. I'm very negative about the regulations, but I'm proud of my team and the engine crew. They really did a fantastic job.

via:
@KemalSengulll

interesting...