2026 Oracle Red Bull Racing F1 Team

[venkyhere]

- supporting the 'Mercedes have a cheat-PU specifically for themselves and dont share with customers' theory.

this is nonsense. Let's drop it.

Let me cling on to my confirmation biases (based on the history of FIA, how team bosses have controlled 'the formula' in the past, how partial some of the TDs have been etc), we all have some notion or the other that isn't 'verified' but 'gut-feel' based. Every single 'reasoning pathway' that I have read in the forums, leads to 'more peak power from ICE' , but people are afraid to type their feelings, lest they look stupid in front of others. I am taking that risk, and sticking to my theory. I wouldn't be surprised if in the winter break before 2027, we have a whistleblower from Mercedes hinting the same.

[Vettel165]

Of course tyre deg was not good, that was to be expected, the car is overweight and also had to use more fuel in advance. This is why when the chunk will get slimmer, we will see a lot of improvement from one weekend to another. It will improve the balance of the car, tyre wear, and then you can push more. All to play for, 24 races we have, the season is very long. I dont like the new rules, but will just have to accept it.

[Sergej]

Max made an interesting point: “Honestly, developing the car aerodynamically doesn’t make much sense anymore. You’re not taking the fast corners flat anyway. It’s basically just about energy recovery and traction out of the slow corners now. So in the end it’s more like a formula engine than anything else.”

[AR3-GP]

Of course tyre deg was not good, that was to be expected, the car is overweighted and also had to use more fuel in advance. This is why when the chunk will get slimmer, we will see a lot of improvement from one weekend to another. It will improve the balance of the car, tyre wear, and then you can push more. All to play for, 24 races we have, the season is very long.

I agree, they not only have to run extra fuel, but teams use ballast to fine tune the weight distribution for balance. So if the car has a dry weight that is 10kg over the weight limit, then there can be a couple extra kgs from more fuel, and the ballast that they use to balance the car.

They could unlock a lot and I think Verstappen has some insight to what the immediate changes are worth when he said this:

The car is quite good; we know there's potential. We're not bad on the engine side either. Right now, our shortcomings are split down the middle; half from the chassis, half from the engine. It's a surmountable situation, nothing shocking. I'm very negative about the regulations, but I'm proud of my team and the engine crew. They really did a fantastic job.

Verstappen is not a people pleaser. He isn't going to praise something that doesn't deserve it. There's potential.

[Badger]

Max

“But I think it was quite clear that we had a lot of degradation and a lot of graining on the hard compound, which we thought was going to be better.

“But, unfortunately, it looked like the medium was the better tyre today.

“I passed regardless, because we were like two seconds a lot faster but, yeah, I don’t know what word to use.”

This was quite evident. RB unfortunately kept two hards.

[Sergej]

Feels like we have to hope this amazing regulation set does not push Max to retire. His body language was quite bad this weekend.

[AR3-GP]

Max

“But I think it was quite clear that we had a lot of degradation and a lot of graining on the hard compound, which we thought was going to be better.

“But, unfortunately, it looked like the medium was the better tyre today.

“I passed regardless, because we were like two seconds a lot faster but, yeah, I don’t know what word to use.”

This was quite evident. RB unfortunately kept two hards.

When Lando pitted for fresh mediums at the end, he was only around 3 tenths faster than Max who was on 20 lap old mediums. It was the strongest stint by far. Opening at 23.5 pace and ending at 23.6-23.7 pace after 20 laps.

Red Bull is always using the wrong tires in free practice compared to the other top teams. Consistently. Why?

[Valeo]

Max

“But I think it was quite clear that we had a lot of degradation and a lot of graining on the hard compound, which we thought was going to be better.

“But, unfortunately, it looked like the medium was the better tyre today.

“I passed regardless, because we were like two seconds a lot faster but, yeah, I don’t know what word to use.”

This was quite evident. RB unfortunately kept two hards.

True, at least for the Red Bull it looked like a not so great tyre already in stint 1.
Don‘t know why they didn‘t try a new soft for the last stint, there was nothing to lose.

[organic]

We just have to accept the uncertainty. But waché and max's reactions from the weekend seems quite positive. At the moment it feels like the team is obviously not buoyant but quietly confident that they'll take steps forward (it reminds me of McLaren at start of 2024)

[avantman]

Hadjar confirmed that battery was empty at the start. He had the best start.

Ok, that doesn’t look like 2-3 hp advantage. Haha, what a joke, unless Russell was lying (again). More like “ you can definitely put a zero behind it…and more”.

[AR3-GP]

Ok, that doesn’t look like 2-3 hp advantage. Haha, what a joke, unless Russell was lying (again). More like “ you cannot definitely put a zero behind it…and more”.

I don't think what we were seeing was ICE advantage. Like Max said, engine is good, not Merc level, but not useless either. I think the Red Bull started harvesting earlier than the others as that's how they've programmed it to deal with a depleted battery. He wasn't supposed to be in that situation, so the comparison doesn't make sense.

[Badger]

Ok, that doesn’t look like 2-3 hp advantage. Haha, what a joke, unless Russell was lying (again). More like “ you can definitely put a zero behind it…and more”.

What are you even talking about? Clearly he was having an issue with the PU on the start. You think the ICE just stops pulling at 200 kph because it ran out of power? Leclerc was slower in qualifying but on the start suddenly he has 100 more HP and flies by like he's in a different class?

You can be negative all you want but at least keep it sane.

[avantman]

Ok, that doesn’t look like 2-3 hp advantage. Haha, what a joke, unless Russell was lying (again). More like “ you cannot definitely put a zero behind it…and more”.

I don't think what we were seeing was ICE advantage. Like Max said, engine is good, not Merc level, but not useless either. I think the Red Bull started harvesting earlier than the others as that's how they've programmed it to deal with a depleted battery. He wasn't supposed to be in that situation, so the comparison doesn't make sense.

From what we can see on Lec onboard, rear red lights on Rus and Had cars blinked almost simultaneously just once early On under acceleration, meaning “MGU-K is delivering less than the full 350 kW of power. After that the rear end of red bulll leaves the frame, Mercedes didnt flash anymore, so no harvesting on the straight at all. Let’s have a look from other card behind Hadjar to see if he was superclipping/harvesting before the braking zone. Would be more than strange if he did.

Well, apparently Russel was lying, exaggerated a lot he had no battery.it was not full, probably not even half full but it wasn't empty. Hadjar then had even less, but not literally empty as well, so we couldn’t take much away from these onboards. My bad.

[avantman]

Ok, that doesn’t look like 2-3 hp advantage. Haha, what a joke, unless Russell was lying (again). More like “ you can definitely put a zero behind it…and more”.

What are you even talking about? Clearly he was having an issue with the PU on the start. You think the ICE just stops pulling at 200 kph because it ran out of power? Leclerc was slower in qualifying but on the start suddenly he has 100 more HP and flies by like he's in a different class?

You can be negative all you want but at least keep it sane.

I am talking about something you clearly did not understand. Try read once again and a bit slower. That helps.

[Badger]

Ok, that doesn’t look like 2-3 hp advantage. Haha, what a joke, unless Russell was lying (again). More like “ you can definitely put a zero behind it…and more”.

What are you even talking about? Clearly he was having an issue with the PU on the start. You think the ICE just stops pulling at 200 kph because it ran out of power? Leclerc was slower in qualifying but on the start suddenly he has 100 more HP and flies by like he's in a different class?

You can be negative all you want but at least keep it sane.

I am talking about something you clearly did not understand. Try read once again and a bit slower. That helps.

It's a pointless comparison. You have no idea exactly how much battery they started with, and we also don't know how aggressively each PU is programmed to harvest once it runs out.