2026 Oracle Red Bull Racing F1 Team

[AR3-GP]

That's... a lot.
Max engine is pretty old now while Isack's on newer compounds due to the more failures not?

I don't think the engine age is an issue. Lindblad still has his 1st PU and was very strong today. Seems like software side.

[AR3-GP]

Q: Hadjar did say he felt really good in the car, do you know why you felt different?

Max: "I tried something with the car, the team wanted that. So I said, sure. But that clearly is not the right way... that was predictable. But now we know for sure.."

Q: You said the team wanted the setup, do you agree with putting it on the car because you didn't know either what way to go?

Max: "No. I have tried it many times, but it never works. But they're convinced, but its clear it doesn't work."

They can make some limited changes because FIA declared rain hazard for tomorrow. I think they could have challenged for pole if they were more optimized.

[Paa]

They can make some limited changes because FIA declared rain hazard for tomorrow. I think they could have challenged for pole if they were more optimized.

It's not a fair comparison because clearly the others also had sub-optimal qualy.
But yeah, we can say that if Red Bull nailed everything they could have fought with struggling Merc.

With all of that, I don't think the situation is desperate. If they get AUDO and with the upgrade package and weight reduction they could genuinely be in the fight by Austria/Silverstone .

[Valeo]

Max looked so confident on the brakes around Miami.
Sadly, there is not much left here.

[Badger]

I thought it was a temp issue or something in the corners, but this seems to be mostly something to do with the engine/software. Max is bleeding time to Hadjar on all the straights. For whatever reason it improved slightly on his final lap, but still not completely solved. Very weird.

[Paa]

I thought it was a temp issue or something in the corners, but this seems to be mostly something to do with the engine/software. Max is bleeding time to Hadjar on all the straights. For whatever reason it improved slightly on his final lap, but still not completely solved. Very weird.

Did Hadjar got a new engine after his issues on the sprint? Btw what was that about, I did not read anything regarding that.

[AR3-GP]

Hadjar has taken all new PU components this weekend. All of the RBPT cars except Max, for some reason. So that might explain some of the straight line gap (as well as the speed of Lindblad), but that's a huge amount of time to give away coming to a circuit like this. They won't do it in Monaco, so Barcelona?

[Cassius]

Is Hadjar also using the new wing? Maybe he is not and that new more loaded wing is a bit more draggy.

[Badger]

The straight line performance on the final lap could perhaps be explained by the difference in engine mileage, but not the laps before. Seems like the software "fixed" itself on Max's final lap. What a set of regs.

[AR3-GP]

I guess the motivation for stringing along this PU is they don't want to take any penalties if they can avoid it. He would be on track to get a new one either in Barcelona or Austria which is coincident with ADUO so that could also be the intention.

Considering that Merc/Ferrari have bailed on the first PU already (and Mercedes customer teams are still eating through components), then it's not like RBPT are doing a bad job.

[AR3-GP]

They were the fastest in S1 and very good apex speeds.

[CjC]

They were the fastest in S1 and very good apex speeds.

https://i.postimg.cc/jS2DRQf1/image.png

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HJCcZk5XsAA ... =4096x4096

We can’t upvote in team threads anymore but if we could, you would have had one from me

[Gillian]

They were the fastest in S1 and very good apex speeds.

https://i.postimg.cc/jS2DRQf1/image.png

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HJCcZk5XsAA ... =4096x4096

Yes its not looking bad at all.

The only thing that is puzzling to me is the team not listening to Verstappen (wrong setup direction again).

But the potential is there.

[FNTC]

Max Verstappen: Red Bull didn’t follow my set-up feedback in Canada

“We did something different with my car, that’s what the team wanted. Clearly, that doesn’t work the way it should. But sometimes you also have to let the team do their thing and make clear that it doesn’t work. I said, ‘Go ahead, if you think this is going to work, then do it.’ And clearly, it doesn’t work.”

What makes that particularly remarkable – if the team was so convinced the approach would work – is that a different choice was made on Isack Hadjar’s car. Verstappen explained: “That’s because they wanted to try it with me, that has been the case for years. A driver can also say, ‘Just leave it as it is because it already feels reasonably okay,’ but for me it didn’t feel okay beforehand and it still doesn’t. I’m not easily satisfied with a car. I want to fight for victory, not for seventh place.”

According to Verstappen, it is now clear to everyone within the team that the chosen direction in Montreal was not the right one.

“It’s obvious, isn’t it? The whole qualifying session was going nowhere. I always stay reasonably calm about it, but hopefully now they know that it doesn’t work.”

[avantman]

Antonelli set the fastest S1 time. Anyway, all top 4 teams were super close, within 0,07s which wasn't the case neither in S2 nor S3, that turned out to be far more important sectors.