2026 Oracle Red Bull Racing F1 Team

[TNTHead]

My guess would be the the following 5:

- Starts & other engine gremlins (not fully solved yet, although progress made, maybe counted as solved?)
- (cooling) efficiency (solved - less louvres / smaller rear exit,new macarena rear wing, sidepod, Japan floor?)
- balance in yaw (probably due to insufficient out-wash to ingress of rear wheel wake into diffuser) (solved via new sidepod, but also front wing?)
- weight (not yet solved)
- low speed mechanical grip (partly solved, maybe new suspension will follow if that is the rumour)

Sounds plausable. Hypothesis: we are already observing performance convergence chassis wise. Since the floor is much less sensitive than in the GE era trade offs are far less knife edge so great gains can be obtained by adopting the best aero and chassis solutions.

Still an unkown is which development path has the most potential with highest performance ceiling for chassis and aero. If this is the case we are effectively back in an engine formula.

With the last update package and the rearwing Red Bull has shown they are still a force to reckon with regarding aero/chassis.

[Gillian]

That first lap was the worst performance I have seen from Verstappen in many years. The spin can happen (and saved it, well done), but he went a bit overboard after that.

??? What do you mean with "overbaord". His tires were surely cooking after the spin, so he had to deal with the swimming car on a aggressive first lap.

I would rather criticize, that both errors, the spin and the crossing of the line, are errors that usually do not and should not happen to him. Also the start was not good....getting to a point where you need to question why always the same drivers have bad starts (e.g. Russel had again a better start than Ant).
I am starting to think that these errors are not normal but have something to do with concentration.

Besides that it was a fantastic weekend. I dare say Verstappen is a title contender. Just hope this upgrade was not an one-off, but they can keep progressing.

Come on...

Come on, what? The car is fast, the difference is night and day, there is a lot more potential (weight for starters), there's more than 1 team/driver in it, and Verstappen is still the best driver so being thereabouts is enough performancewise. Honestly, disregarding final result, this was a mega positive weekend.

[marcel171281]

That first lap was the worst performance I have seen from Verstappen in many years. The spin can happen (and saved it, well done), but he went a bit overboard after that.

??? What do you mean with "overbaord". His tires were surely cooking after the spin, so he had to deal with the swimming car on a aggressive first lap.

I would rather criticize, that both errors, the spin and the crossing of the line, are errors that usually do not and should not happen to him. Also the start was not good....getting to a point where you need to question why always the same drivers have bad starts (e.g. Russel had again a better start than Ant).
I am starting to think that these errors are not normal but have something to do with concentration.

Besides that it was a fantastic weekend. I dare say Verstappen is a title contender. Just hope this upgrade was not an one-off, but they can keep progressing.

Come on...

Come on, what? The car is fast, the difference is night and day, there is a lot more potential (weight for starters), there's more than 1 team/driver in it, and Verstappen is still the best driver so being thereabouts is enough performancewise. Honestly, disregarding final result, this was a mega positive weekend.

Title contender is not realitic, sorry. The gap is massive in points and to turn that around you need more than being equal in pace and even that is not the case (yet). What is realistic? Podium contender most of the races later in the season, maybe some victories? But title condenter? No, not this year.

[Valeo]

They should be close around the weight limit by Austria

[Darth-Piekus]

Out of curiosity. Have they shed some weight after that upgrade package?

[Gillian]

??? What do you mean with "overbaord". His tires were surely cooking after the spin, so he had to deal with the swimming car on a aggressive first lap.

I would rather criticize, that both errors, the spin and the crossing of the line, are errors that usually do not and should not happen to him. Also the start was not good....getting to a point where you need to question why always the same drivers have bad starts (e.g. Russel had again a better start than Ant).
I am starting to think that these errors are not normal but have something to do with concentration.


Come on...

Come on, what? The car is fast, the difference is night and day, there is a lot more potential (weight for starters), there's more than 1 team/driver in it, and Verstappen is still the best driver so being thereabouts is enough performancewise. Honestly, disregarding final result, this was a mega positive weekend.

Title contender is not realitic, sorry. The gap is massive in points and to turn that around you need more than being equal in pace and even that is not the case (yet). What is realistic? Podium contender most of the races later in the season, maybe some victories? But title condenter? No, not this year.

No need to be sorry, we are all allowed our opinion We will see what happens but the season is really young.

[Gillian]

Out of curiosity. Have they shed some weight after that upgrade package?

Afaik they went from 12kg overweight to 6-7kg.

[organic]

Wache indicates that he is not so surprised by the effect of the new parts themselves, but rather by the gains coming from Verstappen feeling more comfortable in the car again.
“It delivered what we expected. It's just the package itself that has delivered. But after we fixed some other issues, that has also brought some Max performance that maybe we didn't expect.”
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Wache apologises for late solution to steering issue
The latter is largely related to what Verstappen already shared during his Dutch media session after qualifying: Red Bull discovered and addressed an issue in the steering system.
The technical department led by Wache replaced the entire steering rack and also various “supporting components” ahead of a filming day in Silverstone and the Miami GP.
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Formula 1Verstappen reveals hidden factor in Red Bull’s F1 recovery

Verstappen indicated that he had already felt a steering issue from the very first lap during the Barcelona shakedown, raising the question of why Red Bull had not been able to solve it earlier.
“First, we had to make sure that he had an issue. Then it was about identifying where it was coming from, and that takes a long time. And after that, it was about fixing the problem,” Wache replied.
“I'm sorry that we didn't fix it before. We tried multiple stuff and it didn't work. Some parts also took a long time to arrive, but I think the engineering team did a very good job to achieve it.”
Asked whether Red Bull only truly discovered the issue during the April break or already before that, the Frenchman continued: “A little bit before that. But the break gave us time to produce the parts, I would say. Otherwise, in Bahrain and Jeddah we would not have had the parts.”

Wache confirms the steering issue if maxs comments weren't enough

[venkyhere]

Since 2024 the number of issues identified as 'driver reported, but engineers failed to acknowledge and take seriously' issues with the car are far too many and far too frequent. Perhaps this is where they miss Newey. Having a genius like Max who is renowned to be super-sensitive with car feedback, and ignoring "some" of his inferences as 'human error' is criminal, IMHO. Whatever he says about the car, has to be considered as gold dust.

[f1isgood]

Since 2024 the number of issues identified as 'driver reported, but engineers failed to acknowledge and take seriously' issues with the car are far too many and far too frequent. Perhaps this is where they miss Newey. Having a genius like Max who is renowned to be super-sensitive with car feedback, and ignoring "some" of his inferences as 'human error' is criminal, IMHO. Whatever he says about the car, has to be considered as gold dust.

I am sorry but what is this? They listened to Max, acknowledged and issue and fixed it and the car gained nearly a second in one upgrade. Am I missing something here? It's not like they're actively refusing to do something about things

Also not sure what Newey would have done here. Sure maybe they narrow the issue down quickly potentially. But hes not an oracle as otherwise Aston would actually have a very good chassis.

[Valeo]

[organic]

Since 2024 the number of issues identified as 'driver reported, but engineers failed to acknowledge and take seriously' issues with the car are far too many and far too frequent. Perhaps this is where they miss Newey. Having a genius like Max who is renowned to be super-sensitive with car feedback, and ignoring "some" of his inferences as 'human error' is criminal, IMHO. Whatever he says about the car, has to be considered as gold dust.

I am sorry but what is this? They listened to Max, acknowledged and issue and fixed it and the car gained nearly a second in one upgrade. Am I missing something here? It's not like they're actively refusing to do something about things

Also not sure what Newey would have done here. Sure maybe they narrow the issue down quickly potentially. But hes not an oracle as otherwise Aston would actually have a very good chassis.

Perhaps it's in response to this

First, we had to make sure that he had an issue. Then it was about identifying where it was coming from

I think post-Spain 2023 (mostly perez) and verstappen in 2024 it's clear that the technical team have in the past chased performance above listening to the problems that drivers surface

I think though it's good to confirm if there actually is a fault before mindlessly starting to change things

[organic]

https://twitter.com/i/status/2052088700671279485

*Rescinded

[Cassius]

https://twitter.com/i/status/2052088700671279485

Skinner pushed for the concept that was used for the launch car, against the wishes of wache. Bit of a James Key mclaren '23 situation in my opinion

What is the source of your statement?

[pantherxxx]

And you fire someone just because he makes one mistake? I guess he had a conflict with Wache, and of course Mekies is french too, so it didn't end well for Skinner.