2026 Oracle Red Bull Racing F1 Team

[venkyhere]

Looking from the outside, the sidepod concept is really different from what they had in the past, while the Mercedes, Ferrari and Mclaren look like adopted 2025 versions and different from pretty much any other car in the field.
Will be interesting if they stick to it for the coming months.

Sidepod would be a major red flag if the car is very draggy. I don't think it's drag related (because top speed wasn't a huge deficit in either Australia or China), I think it's downforce/packaging/suspension related, since the main suffering points are slow corners and high speed corners, given the main complaints from drivers being 'balance shifting all over the place, no consistency' - which in turn reduces driver confidence and makes them very tentative with their inputs. Thus making the car slow even more.

[Valeo]

Haven't they said the car should be strong in the fast corners? If they are again miles off at Suzuka (Sector 1) that would mean the RB22 has no strenghts at all

[euv2]

They've only said the car is weak in slow and medium speed corners, that could mean the car is average/good in high speed, I doubt it's class leading, will probably be 3rd fastest after Mercedes and Ferrari.

[Valeo]

We will see. Would be interesting what kind of definition Mekies has for the wording "competitive"

[lio007]

It's all intended and planned

• qualify for ADUO
• ATR boost to dial in the new tunnel

[basti313]

I'm only shocked that other people are shocked that in a big new regulation change, a Newey-less Red Bull fall backwards on aero/chassis.

aero-wise, it's a far easier formula, no super-sensitivity with ride height or spring stiffness etc, something the teams were doing for ages, before 2022 regulations.
[/quote]
I wonder why no one blamed the engine.
I mean...Verstappen taking one corner one attempt 4tenths faster than the other attempt is neither chassis nor aero.
Also the RB is nowhere...clearly behind Alpine and Haas. Most likely also behind the Audi.
In contrast to testing, there they were really the test champions...but now as everyone turned up the engines (or at least some did a bit) they are nowhere?
Are they just saving face for their "best engine"?

Feels like unfathomable bad luck or a PU that is very tricky to get into the right window for the start. They had some pretty good starts in testing.

Yes, the RBs did not look bad at all at the start.

[venkyhere]

I'm only shocked that other people are shocked that in a big new regulation change, a Newey-less Red Bull fall backwards on aero/chassis.

aero-wise, it's a far easier formula, no super-sensitivity with ride height or spring stiffness etc, something the teams were doing for ages, before 2022 regulations.

I wonder why no one blamed the engine.
I mean...Verstappen taking one corner one attempt 4tenths faster than the other attempt is neither chassis nor aero.
Also the RB is nowhere...clearly behind Alpine and Haas. Most likely also behind the Audi.
In contrast to testing, there they were really the test champions...but now as everyone turned up the engines (or at least some did a bit) they are nowhere?
Are they just saving face for their "best engine"?

Feels like unfathomable bad luck or a PU that is very tricky to get into the right window for the start. They had some pretty good starts in testing.

Yes, the RBs did not look bad at all at the start.

kindly correct the \quote\ positions in your post, it makes it look like I am a Newey 'fan' (which i am not)

[avantman]

I am surprised the race pace wasn't better. A very bad weekend. I think long corners are a particularly bad weakness for this chassis at the moment and it made them drop to midfield.

Still, worse pace and deg than their sister team? That's harsh.
Did Hadjar have any long-lasting damage from his kerfuffle in the beginning of the race?
Even then, I think Max was dropping away from Bearman in the end there, so it was hardly better on the other side of the garage.

18s ahead af the time of retirement. Would’ve been 25s ahead in the end if MV had a chance to finish. Hardly better? Have you been watching the race at all? That is massive gap under these regs when best drivers couldnt make as much of a difference as before.

More than 40 s from Antonelli at the time Max had to retire I think? They were showing intervaltimes.

That was about VER advantage over Hadjar, nothing to do with the leader.

[Jurgen von Diaz]

What has been the issue with Max in the starts?

[loekf2]

What has been the issue with Max in the starts?

Think it is drained battery, not anti-stall or clutch. I don’t understand why it is mainly RBR, not Racing Bulls. Same PU, same gearbox, same software.

[loekf2]

We will see. Would be interesting what kind of definition Mekies has for the wording "competitive"

Think he is talking BS. If the car’s problem is mechanical grip, that is a chassis problem.

[TNTHead]

What has been the issue with Max in the starts?

Think it is drained battery, not anti-stall or clutch. I don’t understand why it is mainly RBR, not Racing Bulls. Same PU, same gearbox, same software.

It is engine or clutch related, below 50 km/h no electric power is used, on the onboard you see the engine bogs down massively. Too aggressive clutch in combination with a narrow power band I suppose.

[Darth-Piekus]

What has been the issue with Max in the starts?

Think it is drained battery, not anti-stall or clutch. I don’t understand why it is mainly RBR, not Racing Bulls. Same PU, same gearbox, same software.

It is engine or clutch related, below 50 km/h no electric power is used, on the onboard you see the engine bogs down massively. Too aggressive clutch in combination with a narrow power band I suppose.

I noticed that Hadjar doesn't seem to have such a big problem in his starts.

[pantherxxx]

Reliability is more worrying at the moment than pace for me. Pace can be fixed eventually with aero updates, but if the engine breaks down every second or third grand prix, that sucks, and they have to change the whole engine to a new version to really fix that.

[Juzh]

Apparently ERS overheated and this caused Max's retirement, so this probably means more cooling will be required which will further slow the car down.