2026 Oracle Red Bull Racing F1 Team

[venkyhere]

It’s similar to 2022: Red Bull was slower than Ferrari at first, but after a weight-reduction upgrade, they became much faster than Ferrari. Although the gap now is much bigger and harder to overcome, it doesn’t mean it can’t be overcome.

'in hope we trust' while chasing a 'bridge too far'

[Sergej]

It’s similar to 2022: Red Bull was slower than Ferrari at first, but after a weight-reduction upgrade, they became much faster than Ferrari. Although the gap now is much bigger and harder to overcome, it doesn’t mean it can’t be overcome.

Red Bull became "much faster" than Ferrari when TD39 killed Ferrari's concept. Only with the RB19 Red Bull took full advantage of the weight reduction.

[dia6olo]

It’s similar to 2022: Red Bull was slower than Ferrari at first, but after a weight-reduction upgrade, they became much faster than Ferrari. Although the gap now is much bigger and harder to overcome, it doesn’t mean it can’t be overcome.

That's not what really happened.
RBR did gain with the weight loss but the big swing happened because Ferrari lost PU power, they started having PU issues very early on and according to a good few sources, Autoracer being one of of them and who are generally reliable, especially when it comes to Ferrari, reported they had to turn the PU down. That was then followed by TD39 shortly after.

[Valeo]

Q: How much potential do you think the RB22 has?

Max: "There is a lot of potential, it's just going to depend on if we can extract that throughout the year."

"The gap was quite big, and also in the race I think if I would’ve started, let's say, a little bit up front, I think the best that I could have done was one spot higher, because we didn't have the pace of the top 4 cars, also a lot of dug and graining.."

"But we'll see what happens in the coming races."

https://x.com/i/status/2031977312846073928

[AR3-GP]

Vasseur: 'Verstappen could have beaten us'
According to the Frenchman, Verstappen's starting position played an important role in the course of the race. The Red Bull driver had to start from the back after a failed qualifying session and could therefore never really compete for the top positions.

"If Max had been further up the grid, it would probably have been a different story," Vasseur admitted to various media. "Then it would have become a lot more difficult for us to hold on to those positions."

https://www.gptoday.net/nl/nieuws/f1/29 ... a-mercedes

[marcel171281]

Vasseur: 'Verstappen could have beaten us'
According to the Frenchman, Verstappen's starting position played an important role in the course of the race. The Red Bull driver had to start from the back after a failed qualifying session and could therefore never really compete for the top positions.

"If Max had been further up the grid, it would probably have been a different story," Vasseur admitted to various media. "Then it would have become a lot more difficult for us to hold on to those positions."

https://www.gptoday.net/nl/nieuws/f1/29 ... a-mercedes

I need the same stuff that Vasseur is on.

[AR3-GP]

Russell points to reigning constructors' champion McLaren, and expects there to be even more opposition: "McLaren can fight with us and Ferrari and Red Bull also seem to have built an engine that is very close to ours. At the moment, the difference seems to come mainly from the car. I think we built a really good car this year."

https://www.gptoday.net/nl/nieuws/f1/29 ... verstappen

Verstappen said there is "potential".

[Emag]

Russell points to reigning constructors' champion McLaren, and expects there to be even more opposition: "McLaren can fight with us and Ferrari and Red Bull also seem to have built an engine that is very close to ours. At the moment, the difference seems to come mainly from the car. I think we built a really good car this year."

https://www.gptoday.net/nl/nieuws/f1/29 ... verstappen

Verstappen said there is "potential".

Truth be told, the Mercedes pace wasn't horrifying in Australia, but the problem is that it's more than likely they were holding back. We just don't know how much they were holding back. Both of them had negative degradation on a 40 lap old set of hard tires. That's the troublesome bit.

[Farnborough]

Definitely gave the impression that MB were "light peddling" in Aus.

We didn't get any in depth comparison to judge RB (both cars) in making much of genuine assessment in regard to relative pace though.

[AR3-GP]

Truth be told, the Mercedes pace wasn't horrifying in Australia, but the problem is that it's more than likely they were holding back. We just don't know how much they were holding back. Both of them had negative degradation on a 40 lap old set of hard tires. That's the troublesome bit.

Mclaren had negative deg in most races last year. I think we have to decouple that from the idea of holding back. It's a property of the car. Do I think Mercedes was driving flat out at the end in AUS? No, they had no reason to with a 15+ second gap to 3rd place. However, Verstappen was also stuck behind Norris and quickly ruined his tires doing so. He only drove 22 laps in clean air.

Red Bull is not close to Mercedes, but there are indications of potential. The performance of the PU was shown in qualifying, not the race. The chassis is making most of the gap to Mercedes, not the PU imo. There probably isn't more than a tenth in the PU side. With that said, they are also inexperienced in the fine details of operating the PU consistently, and Mercedes is stronger in that area for now.

[dia6olo]

While it can be argued that Max’s tyres were hurt by starting at the back and dealing with traffic, I don’t think it made much of a difference.
It can also be argued that at no point during preseason testing or free practice in Australia did RBR show any signs of good tyre degradation.

In my honest opining, based on what we had seen up to that point, had Max started P1 he would have still gone backwards & finished pretty much were he finished other than ahead of Lando instead of behind.

IMO he would have never had the tyres to compete or stay with those 4 cars ahead, he would have certainly been closer but still finished a fair chunk adrift.

[CjC]

Russell points to reigning constructors' champion McLaren, and expects there to be even more opposition: "McLaren can fight with us and Ferrari and Red Bull also seem to have built an engine that is very close to ours. At the moment, the difference seems to come mainly from the car. I think we built a really good car this year."

https://www.gptoday.net/nl/nieuws/f1/29 ... verstappen

Verstappen said there is "potential".

It reads to me that’s he’s deflecting attention from the Merc PU again.

[upsidedowntoast]

Vasseur: 'Verstappen could have beaten us'
According to the Frenchman, Verstappen's starting position played an important role in the course of the race. The Red Bull driver had to start from the back after a failed qualifying session and could therefore never really compete for the top positions.

"If Max had been further up the grid, it would probably have been a different story," Vasseur admitted to various media. "Then it would have become a lot more difficult for us to hold on to those positions."

https://www.gptoday.net/nl/nieuws/f1/29 ... a-mercedes

I need the same stuff that Vasseur is on.

Mercedes: *sandbagging, "red bull is so strong aaaaa"*
Ferrari: "Write that down write that down!"

[organic]

Max/waché would not be without pessimism for no reason

[venkyhere]

Max/waché would not be without pessimism for no reason

double, triple, quadruple ? too many negatives in that statement
Kindly help souls with poor logic - are Max/Wache optimistic or pessimistic ?