2026 Oracle Red Bull Racing F1 Team

[FW17]

Are Red Bull as a team have been misled by the rotating wing?

I feel that Red Bull car is running too much wing because it can have a bigger opening by the wing in the straights. By having a bigger wing for the corners, while the speed through them is going to be better, it is also going to have more drag for the given speed.

With dragging the car at a higher speed in the corner or even the same speed as others in the corners, the engine is being worked harder through the corners. In this formula where through the corners the engine can harvest energy, even half a second additional deployment on the straights is going to be massive.

Red Bull needs to go back to the previous era of thinking where they had the least wing and least drag to cover for the weak Renault engines, the discipline which carried through the Honda days.

The tyre wear is I guess connected to harsh MGU deploy and not so great a floor performance.

[lio007]

I know it's thejudge13, but it might be that Paul Monaghan stays at Red Bull
https://thejudge13.com/2026/08/12/red-b ... llac-move/

[Alexf1]

Has anyone seen any update/news about what happened to the 'first round ADUO' and the 'appeal' launched by Redbull ? Remember reading sometime ago that 'things will clear before Hungarian GP or latest before summer break'.
Well, what happened ?

I read reports that Mercedes are planning to bring their ADUO update later in the season, so I assume Red Bull got their "clarification".

Second round of ADUO was till Hungary so I expected the communication on the outcome last weekend, as that's 2 weeks after the GP:
https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/arti ... bKhHOd7GdD

If Merc hasn't made any changes so maybe the 4% deficit group is now in the 2% deficit group, or in the lead group with Red Bull.

[ME4ME]

I know it's thejudge13, but it might be that Paul Monaghan stays at Red Bull
https://thejudge13.com/2026/08/12/red-b ... llac-move/

Was thinking the same thing. Red Bull should offer him a lucrative deal to remain at the team as it will bring continuity and stability.

[f1isgood]

Continuity and stability hahaha

[Rikhart]

https://www.grandprix247.com/formula-1- ... -checkmate

A circus ran by clowns, how is this guy and his whole team still running the FIA? The amount of stupidity they have been doing is just off the charts. I honestly can't even believe what he is saying here, is the man actually this clueless? He can't see how leaving the ICE slightly inferior will then allow you free reign to upgrade the OTHER 50% OF THE POWER UNIT? This beggars belief!

[Badger]

https://www.grandprix247.com/formula-1- ... -checkmate

A circus ran by clowns, how is this guy and his whole team still running the FIA? The amount of stupidity they have been doing is just off the charts. I honestly can't even believe what he is saying here, is the man actually this clueless? He can't see how leaving the ICE slightly inferior will then allow you free reign to upgrade the OTHER 50% OF THE POWER UNIT? This beggars belief!

It doesn’t work that way. You can fine tune the electrical side to some extent but it’s already highly efficient. That isn’t where the hardware performance gains lie ultimately, it’s in the ICE.

The real outrage is that ADUO is simply not fit for purpose when it comes to measuring overall ICE performance. If RBPT really had a 2-4% better ICE than Merc, and 4-6% better than Ferrari, this would be far more noticeable in the performance of the cars during acceleration and full throttle. But there is zero advantage relative to Merc and only a discrete one relative to Ferrari. RBPT may have a “peaky” engine, but the average power of the Merc is better.

[AR3-GP]

It doesn’t work that way. You can fine tune the electrical side to some extent but it’s already highly efficient. That isn’t where the hardware performance gains lie ultimately, it’s in the ICE.

Merc vs Honda vs RB energy store: viewtopic.php?p=1351979#p1351979
Red Bull's energy store looks prehistoric compared to Mercedes.

Honda's development program for the energy store:
Evolution of the ESS Battery Unit and Control Technologies – 2015 to 2022｜Formula 1｜Motorsports Technology｜Honda Technology｜Honda

Honda developed an in-house carbon nanotube electrode material that allowed them to increase the volumetric energy density by 30% between 2020 and 2021, to reduce the internal resistance of the cells, and to reduce the electrolyte separator thickness. A smaller battery is better for packaging/CoG and less internal resistance means higher efficiency.

Also, batteries degrade. They lose efficiency with temperature and age. This is a design factor where there can be significant differences between the manufacturers.

I don't know the specifics of Red Bull's issues, but there is significant development opportunity in both the hybrid and the ICE.

[Rikhart]

https://www.grandprix247.com/formula-1- ... -checkmate

A circus ran by clowns, how is this guy and his whole team still running the FIA? The amount of stupidity they have been doing is just off the charts. I honestly can't even believe what he is saying here, is the man actually this clueless? He can't see how leaving the ICE slightly inferior will then allow you free reign to upgrade the OTHER 50% OF THE POWER UNIT? This beggars belief!

It doesn’t work that way. You can fine tune the electrical side to some extent but it’s already highly efficient. That isn’t where the hardware performance gains lie ultimately, it’s in the ICE.

The real outrage is that ADUO is simply not fit for purpose when it comes to measuring overall ICE performance. If RBPT really had a 2-4% better ICE than Merc, and 4-6% better than Ferrari, this would be far more noticeable in the performance of the cars during acceleration and full throttle. But there is zero advantage relative to Merc and only a discrete one relative to Ferrari. RBPT may have a “peaky” engine, but the average power of the Merc is better.

Most of the advantage Mercedes has had until now lay in the better hybrid system, it's recharging, mapping, etc.

[Wouter]

[AR3-GP]

Foreshadowing a rumor I've seen about ADUO...

“I don't think we go into next year with any disadvantage compared to Mercedes, McLaren or Ferrari,” Mekies adds. “It doesn't mean that it will be us or them or whatever. It means that you will have four top teams that will have fairly equal chance to develop their car to challenge for the title next year.”

https://racer.com/2026/08/13/have-we-un ... hievements

[PlatinumZealot]

It doesn’t work that way. You can fine tune the electrical side to some extent but it’s already highly efficient. That isn’t where the hardware performance gains lie ultimately, it’s in the ICE.

Merc vs Honda vs RB energy store: viewtopic.php?p=1351979#p1351979
Red Bull's energy store looks prehistoric compared to Mercedes.

Honda's development program for the energy store:
Evolution of the ESS Battery Unit and Control Technologies – 2015 to 2022｜Formula 1｜Motorsports Technology｜Honda Technology｜Honda

Honda developed an in-house carbon nanotube electrode material that allowed them to increase the volumetric energy density by 30% between 2020 and 2021, to reduce the internal resistance of the cells, and to reduce the electrolyte separator thickness. A smaller battery is better for packaging/CoG and less internal resistance means higher efficiency.

Also, batteries degrade. They lose efficiency with temperature and age. This is a design factor where there can be significant differences between the manufacturers.

I don't know the specifics of Red Bull's issues, but there is significant development opportunity in both the hybrid and the ICE.

Since the output is limited the benefits as the article states, is down to reliability and being able to run new modes of deployment.. I think they mention here running the MGUK for longer time with a slightly lower output can be beneficial at some tracks, but this used to be reliability limited before they improved the battery. So yeah benefits in reliabilty and durability is always good.

Relibaility might be even more of a differentiator in this 50/50 ice to battery formula.

[gearboxtrouble]

The MGUK is capped at 350KW so nobody is going to have an advantage on peak power there. RBPT has likely been conservative in its ES design and targeted reliability in their first season over weight or volumetric efficiency. Where Mercedes has an advantage is in its ability to optimize its ES more efficiently achieving higher average power from the MGUK to offset the small deficit in peak ICE power. That's most likely software - Mercedes has enormous amounts of training data from the last ruleset as well as FE. Ferrari also has huge amounts of data and has run close to 50/50 hybrids in WEC for years, providing them better ways to train their algos than the others. I expect RBPT to close the gap to Mercedes over 26 because the learning slope on their energy management models will be much steeper given the lower baseline.

[AR3-GP]

The MGUK is capped at 350KW so nobody is going to have an advantage on peak power there.

Thermal degradation. This affected Ferrari's MGU-K in Austria.

[AR3-GP]

Mercedes has an advantage is in its ability to optimize its ES more efficiently achieving higher average power from the MGUK to offset the small deficit in peak ICE power. That's most likely software - Mercedes has enormous amounts of training data from the last ruleset as well as FE.

There are differences in both the hardware and the software. A battery must be cooled or it cannot be operated at peak power for long. The amount of heat that the cells generate depends on the cell design. The amount of heat that can be removed from the cells depends on the pack design. The cell aging after 1GP, 2 GP, 6 GPs depends on the chemistry and thermal history. All of these place practical caps on the useable performance of the system. They perform one way in ideal lab conditions, and they work less efficiently in the real car. There is significant scope in the hardware design of the hybrid system to mitigate these issues and that can lead to significant differences in performance between the manufacturers.