2026 Oracle Red Bull Racing F1 Team

[Badger]

[Badger]

I wonder what happened with that front wing they ran in Barcelona practice? They didn't use it in the race and it was not on the car for Austria. Maybe needed further development?

[Jdn1327]

I wonder what happened with that front wing they ran in Barcelona practice? They didn't use it in the race and it was not on the car for Austria. Maybe needed further development?

Could be for a different type of circuit...would be interesting to see how founded the AUDO is this race. According to the FIA Redbull should be no.1 in all speed traps.

[euv2]

I wonder what happened with that front wing they ran in Barcelona practice? They didn't use it in the race and it was not on the car for Austria. Maybe needed further development?

Not on the car for this week either, the trials runs they did were much worse than the old wing, I think they will very likely scrap it or adjust somethings before bringing it back.

[Cassius]

I wonder what happened with that front wing they ran in Barcelona practice? They didn't use it in the race and it was not on the car for Austria. Maybe needed further development?

Not on the car for this week either, the trials runs they did were much worse than the old wing, I think they will very likely scrap it or adjust somethings before bringing it back.

Based on what piece of info?

[Valencia2012]

Car looked very bad with the onboard in s1 of max on his soft tyre lap, hope either they were running more fuel or trying setup experiments..

[Valeo]

Car clearly improved in high speed.
Certainly not perfect but let's see what they can do for the remaining weekend.

[pantherxxx]

Better than expected honestly. If they can fix the setup Verstappen can win in the main race.

[Badger]

P3 is best possible I think. There's more performance in that middle sector, but too much understeer in the high speed. If they fix that they'll be in with a shout tomorrow in quali.

[Valeo]

They would have been quite a bit off around Spielberg too in quali but still were very competitive on high fuel, hope that's also the case tomorrow.

[venkyhere]

There can only be one or another or both, of the following two reasons for Hamilton pole :

1) Ferrari must have brilliantly used their ADUO to enhance their PU (ICE/recovery efficiency/deployment efficiency/MGUK itself) because this (white encircled in the pic) is possible only if there is 'extra energy to spare'. To the effect that the Ferrari PU has surpassed not only RBPT's PU, but even the Mercedes PU.

OR/AND

2) Ferrari's overall SLM drag is much much lesser than anyone else.

[gearboxtrouble]

Didn't Ferrari remove their exhaust "blown" wing here? That was apparently costing them nearly 10hp and adding a lot of drag. I wonder if that was enough for their engine performance deficit to disappear.

[lio007]

...
If only they were as clever to see how Mercedes gamed the system to win ADUO by making everyone agree to the "measure only ICE, but grant tokens for entire PU"

That's so devastating...they didn't (presumably) win the engineering challenge but mastered the game on the green table. Another reason for me to dislike this team and Toto W.
It's highly likely CH would have used the media to the most to apply public pressure on FIA and F1 which would cause a lot of dislike for RBR from other fans. I'd guess RBR is applying pressure but more in a subtle way in the background which I prefer much more as it causes way less drama in forums and social media.
And I'd guess RBR never ever, even in their wildest dreams, thought to be on the sharp end of the ICE ranking. Basically they should be applauded and celebrated so much for that achievement if it weren't for this silly token restriction.
There were so much noise pre-2026 that e.g. Aramco has so much more experience and a big advantage with the fuel, Merc being Merc and also Honda was expected to be very competitive as they had one of the best PU before.
Imagine RBR would have stayed with Honda and have to deal with their PU now... absolutely no chance Max would continue with RBR.
So it's been the right decision to build their own PU. I was very sceptical and pessimistic but they have proved me wrong at least for the most topics of the PU.

[ME4ME]

Yes politics aside, from an engineering perspective Red Bull Powertrains Ford have done an absolute spectaculair job. Performance, reliability, transmission and integration have been superb given it's their first power unit

[Gillian]

...
If only they were as clever to see how Mercedes gamed the system to win ADUO by making everyone agree to the "measure only ICE, but grant tokens for entire PU"

That's so devastating...they didn't (presumably) win the engineering challenge but mastered the game on the green table. Another reason for me to dislike this team and Toto W.
It's highly likely CH would have used the media to the most to apply public pressure on FIA and F1 which would cause a lot of dislike for RBR from other fans. I'd guess RBR is applying pressure but more in a subtle way in the background which I prefer much more as it causes way less drama in forums and social media.
And I'd guess RBR never ever, even in their wildest dreams, thought to be on the sharp end of the ICE ranking. Basically they should be applauded and celebrated so much for that achievement if it weren't for this silly token restriction.
There were so much noise pre-2026 that e.g. Aramco has so much more experience and a big advantage with the fuel, Merc being Merc and also Honda was expected to be very competitive as they had one of the best PU before.
Imagine RBR would have stayed with Honda and have to deal with their PU now... absolutely no chance Max would continue with RBR.
So it's been the right decision to build their own PU. I was very sceptical and pessimistic but they have proved me wrong at least for the most topics of the PU.

Well a lot of that is actually true if you take into consideration this ICE is the result of mostly (ex)-Mercedes and (ex)-Honda engineers. That's why the current Honda ICE/PU is terrible... it's designed and created by a different group of Honda personal. They had no choice because cutting the program meant a lot of the original personal was redistributed (outside of) Honda.