2026 Oracle Red Bull Racing F1 Team

[nitrotech]

This is a fantastic opportunity for Jos Verstappen to take the team to it's deserving glory this team never achieved under Horner. The team was demotivated to the core when Horner was there. Now the team must be rejuvenated and Jos' leadership is going to take them to new heights. Come on Jos.

[ME4ME]

Would be not surprised if they start from the back tomorrow during the sprint and change setup.
Its worthless to run like that.

If they're confident things can be better with an alternative setup, sure they could try that. But they shouldn't do that with both cars, they'll just confuse themselves. Better to run both setups and confirm what works and what not.

[Xyz22]

This is a fantastic opportunity for Jos Verstappen to take the team to it's deserving glory this team never achieved under Horner. The team was demotivated to the core when Horner was there. Now the team must be rejuvenated and Jos' leadership is going to take them to new heights. Come on Jos.

Horner and Newey were the main reasons behind RB success.

[Paa]

I can't even count how many key people Red Bull lost during the last few year and I don't remember any serious signing from other teams in ages.
I think they really need some fresh blood, but not sure why is that not happening. No team can afford to lose so many talents without feeling the effect.

[venkyhere]

I think they screwed up the setup or ride height or something basic. The focus right now is on the energy software, so naturally the 'prep work' on mechanical side is suffering I think.
Surprised at the knee-jerk reactions here. They will pull the car out of parc ferme and do some band aid job and start from pitlane tomorrow for the sprint.

[euv2]

Pierre Waché :

“Our set up for sprint qualifying didn’t play out as we would have wanted it to, so we need to analyse our performance and see how we can improve for the Sprint race and qualifying. We are understanding more and improving week by week – we’ve already made positive steps to improve energy management and have made improvements on the chassis side based on what we learned from Australia. We are making progress, but we are not quite there yet. Tomorrow’s sessions will bring major learnings to help us get closer to where we would like to be.”

[FittingMechanics]

I think they screwed up the setup or ride height or something basic. The focus right now is on the energy software, so naturally the 'prep work' on mechanical side is suffering I think.
Surprised at the knee-jerk reactions here. They will pull the car out of parc ferme and do some band aid job and start from pitlane tomorrow for the sprint.

Red Bull last year often times had issues nailing the initial setup of the car. It is likely that it happened here as well.

[Paa]

Guys, it is 1.7s.
With optimal setup they may gain like 0.5s and I was generous with that.
Red Bull is fighting for Q3 with Audi and Alpine

What would you need to see to acknowledge there is a problem?

[Seanspeed]

I think they screwed up the setup or ride height or something basic. The focus right now is on the energy software, so naturally the 'prep work' on mechanical side is suffering I think.
Surprised at the knee-jerk reactions here. They will pull the car out of parc ferme and do some band aid job and start from pitlane tomorrow for the sprint.

Red Bull last year often times had issues nailing the initial setup of the car. It is likely that it happened here as well.

That was true of most teams other than Mclaren last year, really. Those ground effect cars were just super finicky.

[Cassius]

Guys, it is 1.7s.
With optimal setup they may gain like 0.5s and I was generous with that.
Red Bull is fighting for Q3 with Audi and Alpine

What would you need to see to acknowledge there is a problem?

We know there is a problem. As Max said last week, it is 50% chassis, 50% engine.

He is losing 8 tenths at the end of the back straight to Russell. That is just more deployment from Merc PU. Look at Gasly. Similar deployment as well.

They need to start improving the balance and aero and hope for ADUO to be closer next year.

[CHT]

Guys, it is 1.7s.
With optimal setup they may gain like 0.5s and I was generous with that.
Red Bull is fighting for Q3 with Audi and Alpine

What would you need to see to acknowledge there is a problem?

if they get the set up right they should also gain in other area.

[venkyhere]

Guys, it is 1.7s.
With optimal setup they may gain like 0.5s and I was generous with that.
Red Bull is fighting for Q3 with Audi and Alpine

What would you need to see to acknowledge there is a problem?

of course there is a problem. The car is anywhere from 0.8s-1s lagging Mercedes on Quali pace if they optimize mechanical setup. We saw that in Australia. I was talking only of the 0.7s 'extra'. Expecting the RBPT PU to 'match' the illegal mercedes PU is a big ask. This is the first year of the PU, the amount of data that will churn out at the end of the 22/24 races, will be needed to 'tune it up' for next year.
What did you expect ? To be like the Mclaren (who I think have made some kind of breakthrough with their energy S/W) over the year ? It's far easier task for Mclaren because they 'know' what engine they have underneath (for a moment I am ready to discount my pet theory that Mercedes has sold a diff engine (not just s/w) to their customers) , so they 'know' how much can be bridged.
Honestly, this midfielder like performance is what I expected in 2025 itself, we can't expect miracles from the first year of a new PU manufacturer - there will be blowouts, there will be overheating, there will be many DNFs, there will be lack of performance.
Guys, don't set your expectations too high - just because austrian king cobra and english cobra, cooked up a political narrative "RBPT best" in Bahrain. If those statements even gave you a mild hope (that you were not ready to admit in front of others) , they have achieved their narrative goal.

[Badger]

Guys, it is 1.7s.
With optimal setup they may gain like 0.5s and I was generous with that.
Red Bull is fighting for Q3 with Audi and Alpine

What would you need to see to acknowledge there is a problem?

We know there is a problem. As Max said last week, it is 50% chassis, 50% engine.

He is losing 8 tenths at the end of the back straight to Russell. That is just more deployment from Merc PU. Look at Gasly. Similar deployment as well.

They need to start improving the balance and aero and hope for ADUO to be closer next year.

They "only" lose 6 tenths to Merc in S3 so I highly doubt they are losing 8 tenths on the straight. You're probably looking at those bugged traces where the Merc cars freeze their speed halfway down the straight.

I suspect this track has exposed the flaws in the chassis in combination with a failed set-up.

[Emag]

I think 1 second off is more realistic. Not to say it's great or anything, but there's clearly something wrong with the setup here because the balance was horrible. I don't know how overweight RedBull are in relation to McLaren, but it seems like McLaren sorted out some deployment issues from Australia.

Race pace will be a better indicator. They're allowed a setup change before that, so I am expecting them to be closer on the actual quali. One practice session is just too little time to optimize everything.

[Vettel165]

Alarms should be ringing today in Milton Keynes! I trust the team, but they will need some time to improve.