2026 Oracle Red Bull Racing F1 Team

[euv2]

Hope they get the setup right for qualy, there's definitely pace in the car to fight with McLaren's. It's still crazy to see a top team struggle so much with setup like Red bull, if feels like other teams rarely have these horror shows.

[pantherxxx]

Nice recovery. Verstappen was 19th at some point, and climbed up to 9. place in just 19 laps. I still feel like the car has some race pace potential, just have to nail the setup. Not at level of Ferrari obviously, but probably close to the Mclarens.

[SilviuAgo]

We were so used to see Max up there. Not the nicest battels always, but that was Formula 1. Now, something is not right,

[lio007]

Calm down. We have been warned about it last year! Erratic decisions won't change anything. Research and patience is needed now.

What were we warned about? That they will actually be 1.7s a lap slower?

That developing later into '25 will come at a cost. And exactly that is happening now. Give them time!
The "Spring-break" is a good opportunity.

[Valeo]

Why didn't they change the setup as everybody knew it would be bad? And what happened at the start?

[loekf2]

Why didn't they change the setup as everybody knew it would be bad? And what happened at the start?

I think like the race you are not supposed to change things after qualification. They could have asked for a parc ferme violation (a few time per year allowed) to take the car apart, but did not do it.

I hear weird issues with the car like no energy generation when you lift (engine breaking), must be a software thing.

To me it looks like the first car under a new ruleset they had to develop without Adrian Newey around is a disaster.

[Dee]

RBR have lost Marshall, Newey and Skinner within the last two years. They have a poor wind tunnel and ran long into 2025 to try and get the WDC. They have had no time and no resources to focus on 2026.

I won't be judging them until next year. This year is all about recovery.

[Valeo]

Pace seems decent now.
Onboard the car is very sketchy

[Vettel165]

You can just see how heavy this car is, no agility in the corners, the front needs some time to react. Quite some understeer which Max hates it, I am sure we will be back on the pace when we brought some updates, but time is needed. At least a month or two, until then we will be the fourth best car.

This is why i enjoyed this amazing years 2021-2024 until the end, even 2025 was good. Its f1 nothing lasts forever, drivers come and go. One dominant team comes then its time for another. But mark my words one day the team will be back, sooner than later.

[venkyhere]

Pace seems decent now.
Onboard the car is very sketchy

Pole mercedes went ~0.5s slower than SQ3 yesterday, probably due to hotter track temps
RB22 went ~0.25s faster than SQ3 yesterday, despite the hotter track temps.
So what was a 1.7s gap yesterday, became a 1s gap, by 'erasing' 0.5+0.25 ~= 0.7s. As I was saying yesterday, this is the most that can be expected by going from a 'very poor' car setup to a 'decent' setup.
That 1s gap (PU+aero) is always going to be there unless things like weight reduction & performance updates to PU and chassis happen.

[loekf2]

RBR have lost Marshall, Newey and Skinner within the last two years. They have a poor wind tunnel and ran long into 2025 to try and get the WDC. They have had no time and no resources to focus on 2026.

I won't be judging them until next year. This year is all about recovery.

Agreed. I expect the windtunnel to be ready this year, but you need time to get those results linked to your CFD. Hopefully they sort this out in the first half of this year.

I also think Wachee had his time, his achievements are poor.

[Emag]

So obviously the 1.7s yesterday was overblown, but the car is not liking this track in any case. I think the longer corners are exacerbating the weaknesses. This track is full of them. Once again though, they're quite close with Mercedes from a straight-line perspective.

This same team gave Max a car that could challenge for the title in the second half of the season last year. At a time where everyone had given up and with limited resources. I still think they will turn it around at some point this season.

[Valeo]

Red Bull has made no progress at all in understanding, let alone fixing, why it has had no grip since the first lap of FP1. Its chief suspicion is it is temperature-related but that is about as far as it goes and Hadjar suggested the track layout was more exposing limitations with the car itself.
“We are on the edge of what we have as a package,” Hadjar said.
“We’re grip limited now. We just need more load everywhere.”

https://www.the-race.com/formula-1/comp ... explained/

[Badger]

As I was alluding to yesterday, the engine is not the issue. In fact it stacked up quite well to Merc today, despite Max complaining about deployment issues. The chassis is a bit of a dog though. It reminds me of the F14T in how it goes from understeer directly into oversteer in long medium speed corners.

[f1isgood]

So obviously the 1.7s yesterday was overblown, but the car is not liking this track in any case. I think the longer corners are exacerbating the weaknesses. This track is full of them. Once again though, they're quite close with Mercedes from a straight-line perspective.

This same team gave Max a car that could challenge for the title in the second half of the season last year. At a time where everyone had given up and with limited resources. I still think they will turn it around at some point this season.

They didn't give him a car that could win every race and in proper circumstances that's the only way they could have hoped to do anything.

That McLaren and their drivers were pretty incompetent flatters the job Red Bull did. They didn't have a single dominant race even when they won their races.

In the end you cannot say with a straight face that Red Bull was quicker than McLaren on pure pace for more than 5 races all year last season at best.

I don't see any serious turnaround. When there's talk of potential and unlocking performance the story is always Mercedes in 2022. This upgrade or that upgrade will fix it and so on.

Sure the Monza upgrade last year was fantastic but it was likely a fluke with the ground effect cars.

Edit: RBPT is absolutely fantastic though.