2026 Oracle Red Bull Racing F1 Team

[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.

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.

The trace is incorrect in telemetry but gaps are correct. He gained on last straight towards start/finish vs Rus, just like in Melbourne, so s3 gap overall was not 0.8s.

Net loss due to PU is maybe less than 0.8s as deployment strategy is different, but you see that every non-Merc team is losing massively on the back straight as they can deploy a bit longer/ harder before they need to clip.

You cannot say it is just the chassis. Again, I believe Max is right that it is a mix of both. Today maybe balance issues/ setup exagerrated the gap a bit.

[Badger]

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.

The trace is incorrect in telemetry but gaps are correct. He hained back on last straight towards start/finish, just like in Melbourne, so s3 overall was not 0.8s.

Net loss maybe less than 0.8s as deployment strategy is different, but you see that every non-Merc team is losing massively on the back straight as they can deploy a bit longer/ harder before they need to clip.

You cannot say it is just the chassis. Again, I believe Max is right that it is a mix of both. Today maybe balance issues/ setup exagerrated the gap a bit.

The time delta is estimated between sector times using the speed trace. If the speed trace is wrong the time delta will go haywire. This telemetry is useless for the type of analysis you are trying to do.

[Juzh]

What do we think? Max lost a lot of time (3 tenths) on back straight on his PB lap compared to another one before that. Deployment elsewhere doesn't look that different.

[Badger]

What do we think? Max lost a lot of time (3 tenths) on back straight on his PB lap compared to another one before that. Deployment elsewhere doesn't look that different.

https://i.imgur.com/nHeYUHC.png

The deployment software lottery. Get used to it, it's a feature of these regulations

[Cassius]

What do we think? Max lost a lot of time (3 tenths) on back straight on his PB lap compared to another one before that. Deployment elsewhere doesn't look that different.

https://i.imgur.com/nHeYUHC.png

Similar to what happened when he was behind Norris during the race as I have been trying to point out. Hadjar had similar issue where he lost a lot to Max.

Is it that if you do not drive cleanly or optimal in the corners, the software decides you cannot have that extra deployment, because you would run out of battery?

[Cassius]

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.

The trace is incorrect in telemetry but gaps are correct. He hained back on last straight towards start/finish, just like in Melbourne, so s3 overall was not 0.8s.

Net loss maybe less than 0.8s as deployment strategy is different, but you see that every non-Merc team is losing massively on the back straight as they can deploy a bit longer/ harder before they need to clip.

You cannot say it is just the chassis. Again, I believe Max is right that it is a mix of both. Today maybe balance issues/ setup exagerrated the gap a bit.

The time delta is estimated between sector times using the speed trace. If the speed trace is wrong the time delta will go haywire. This telemetry is useless for the type of analysis you are trying to do.

You don't see gap increasing when Merc stays at 325 km/h, so there is something in the timing that allows you to compare. Otherwise, the overall gap over the full lap would also be more based on telemetry.

[Badger]

The trace is incorrect in telemetry but gaps are correct. He hained back on last straight towards start/finish, just like in Melbourne, so s3 overall was not 0.8s.

Net loss maybe less than 0.8s as deployment strategy is different, but you see that every non-Merc team is losing massively on the back straight as they can deploy a bit longer/ harder before they need to clip.

You cannot say it is just the chassis. Again, I believe Max is right that it is a mix of both. Today maybe balance issues/ setup exagerrated the gap a bit.

The time delta is estimated between sector times using the speed trace. If the speed trace is wrong the time delta will go haywire. This telemetry is useless for the type of analysis you are trying to do.

You don't see gap increasing when Merc stays at 325 km/h, so there is something in the timing that allows you to compare. Otherwise, the overall gap over the full lap would also be more based on telemetry.

The delta needs to respect the lap and sector times, but it uses the speed trace to fill in the gaps, it's an estimate between known values. When the speed trace starts bugging out you can't trust the delta anymore.

Look at the braking zone at the end of the straight. It's telling you Russell gains 2s in one braking zone.

[euv2]

https://x.com/RBR_Daily/status/2032435901750530133?s=20

Chris Medland via F1TV: "I sent a text to some people at Red Bull asking where the pace had gone. They replied, 'We were never fast.' They're having issues with medium-speed corners. The entire first and second sectors. The engine isn't the problem."
[@redbullf1france]

RB22 in the hairpin was very strong even better than the Merc I think and was decent in some low speed, but medium speed corners were terrible.

[organic]

https://x.com/RBR_Daily/status/2032435901750530133?s=20

Chris Medland via F1TV: "I sent a text to some people at Red Bull asking where the pace had gone. They replied, 'We were never fast.' They're having issues with medium-speed corners. The entire first and second sectors. The engine isn't the problem."
[@redbullf1france]

RB22 in the hairpin was very strong even better than the Merc I think and was decent in some low speed, but medium speed corners were terrible.

Has been a recurring theme the last couple of years

[Valeo]

Makes sense as medium corners was also where the struggle was against Mclaren the last two years.
I would insist the problem is not medium speed per se but the type of corner (long radius medium speed), like Budapest which was also a nightmare.

[euv2]

F1's corner analysis says something different.

[pantherxxx]

If the car would be this terrible, Verstappen would not have been able to start in P20 in Albert Park, and get 6th place in the race. That's only possible if he is significantly faster than midfield cars. Probably just very bad setup because only one practice session + worst track for Red Bull.

[Paa]

The whole thing is sad, because initial feedbacks from the pre-season tests were that the car is finally predictable, they have correlation etc etc which were the most important news as they were struggling this a lot in recent years.
I guess it indeed got better judging from the gap between Max vs Hadjar.

But so far this sprint looks too much like last year.
"it was difficult to drive... we don't understand... have to look into that...." etc etc

[nitrotech]

The whole thing is sad, because initial feedbacks from the pre-season tests were that the car is finally predictable, they have correlation etc etc which were the most important news as they were struggling this a lot in recent years.
I guess it indeed got better judging from the gap between Max vs Hadjar.

But so far this sprint looks too much like last year.
"it was difficult to drive... we don't understand... have to look into that...." etc etc

It would be really interesting to see the depth in Red Bull ranks, after Newey left the organization. This is the first car that doesn't have his fingerprints. At the face of it, it doesn't look like the divorce is working out for either party.

[TNTHead]

I don't rule out that they have also turned the engine a bit down for the sprint. So lets see what they can do with the setup after the sprint race