2025 Oracle Red Bull Racing F1 Team

[venkyhere]

That engine cover 'rear exit enlargement' is a good idea, better than opening more slits on the side.
Couldn't watch FP1, not reading much into laptimes.
For those who watched, Q : how did the body language of the RB21 look ? were there radio complaints about understeer, esp sector2 ?

From the side angles the new rear exit looks a larger variant of the newer design and not the older wider one, though I haven't seen a clear pic yet.

Initial understeer in the final 2 corner that was solved with 3 click of Front wing angle. Complaints about tyres overheating at the end of the lap. Otherwise, the car looked solid all way through, slightly difficult to tell with this new wide angle cam stabilising everything on Max's car. Riding more kerb than the RB20, no problems with the bumps either. Solid in all 3 sectors, I think Lando will be fastest in sector 2 this week, Max will need stronger sectors 1 and 3.

Only behind Leclerc who's running a slightly higher mode than RBR and MCL.

Thanks for the info.
3 clicks of extra front wing on Q sim or R sim ? It's exactly the place where more front DF will help, but if it was for Q sim, that would mean there surely will be understeer with full tanks of fuel for R. Might compromise exit onto the straight and become a sitting duck for a DRS pass. To me it indicates that they should have brought a bigger front wing.
Did take a quick look at the data, Alonso and Ferraris were glory running with higher power mode. McLaren and Redbull look the class of the field.

[euv2]

That engine cover 'rear exit enlargement' is a good idea, better than opening more slits on the side.
Couldn't watch FP1, not reading much into laptimes.
For those who watched, Q : how did the body language of the RB21 look ? were there radio complaints about understeer, esp sector2 ?

From the side angles the new rear exit looks a larger variant of the newer design and not the older wider one, though I haven't seen a clear pic yet.

Initial understeer in the final 2 corner that was solved with 3 click of Front wing angle. Complaints about tyres overheating at the end of the lap. Otherwise, the car looked solid all way through, slightly difficult to tell with this new wide angle cam stabilising everything on Max's car. Riding more kerb than the RB20, no problems with the bumps either. Solid in all 3 sectors, I think Lando will be fastest in sector 2 this week, Max will need stronger sectors 1 and 3.

Only behind Leclerc who's running a slightly higher mode than RBR and MCL.

Thanks for the info.
3 clicks of extra front wing on Q sim or R sim ? It's exactly the place where more front DF will help, but if it was for Q sim, that would mean there surely will be understeer with full tanks of fuel for R. Might compromise exit onto the straight and become a sitting duck for a DRS pass. To me it indicates that they should have brought a bigger front wing.
Did take a quick look at the data, Alonso and Ferraris were glory running with higher power mode. McLaren and Redbull look the class of the field.

It was for the early qualy runs with hard tire, no further changes on soft qualy runs. Race sims were done on hard in the final 10 mins, so no more adjustments.

The new front wing has an even bigger top flap than before, don't think they can get any bigger unless they copy MCL's design.

[Valeo]

It's on

[F1Sara]

It's on

Game on

[CjC]

Yes! Come on guys- you count those chickens!

[Sergej]

I think McLaren have much more to show, but it's a positive start at least. Papaya boys could melt like snow at sun if put under pressure, this is what Max needs to do tomorrow.

[organic]

Marko:

"I think we are very close. In the end, however, it will be decisive to get the last hundredths out. We still have a few small problems, but in general both Max and the engineers are satisfied with the car."

Do we believe this guy?

[f1isgood]

Marko:

"I think we are very close. In the end, however, it will be decisive to get the last hundredths out. We still have a few small problems, but in general both Max and the engineers are satisfied with the car."

Do we believe this guy?

Not one bit. He's a certified fraud. That said the general sentiment seems to be car is thereabouts. And also I still don't think Piastri just magically became that much better than Lando around this track. So there's a lot more to wait and watch.

[organic]

Marko:

"I think we are very close. In the end, however, it will be decisive to get the last hundredths out. We still have a few small problems, but in general both Max and the engineers are satisfied with the car."

Do we believe this guy?

Not one bit. He's a certified fraud. That said the general sentiment seems to be car is thereabouts. And also I still don't think Piastri just magically became that much better than Lando around this track. So there's a lot more to wait and watch.

Agreed... Here's verstappens thoughts

"FP1 started quite nicely, we were just getting up to speed with things, but the car was not bad,” he told the official Formula 1 channel. “A bit like the last two weekends where there were no major problems.

“Then in FP2 a few things that we tried, some were good, so we just need to try and optimise that a bit more. But overall, in general I’m quite satisfied, but definitely we need a bit more pace to fight up at the front tomorrow.”

“There’s still a few things that we want to do better, but it’s not like we need to throw around the set-up completely,” he said. “So that’s a good thing.

“We’ll see tomorrow. Is it going to be good enough to fight up front? I don’t know. I always find FP2 is a bit difficult to say with people running [different] engine modes top speed-wise. I guess we’ll see in qualifying."

[organic]

Marko:

"I think we are very close. In the end, however, it will be decisive to get the last hundredths out. We still have a few small problems, but in general both Max and the engineers are satisfied with the car."

Do we believe this guy?

Not one bit. He's a certified fraud. That said the general sentiment seems to be car is thereabouts. And also I still don't think Piastri just magically became that much better than Lando around this track. So there's a lot more to wait and watch.

Agreed... Here's verstappens thoughts

Verstappen:

"FP1 started quite nicely, we were just getting up to speed with things, but the car was not bad,” he told the official Formula 1 channel. “A bit like the last two weekends where there were no major problems.

“Then in FP2 a few things that we tried, some were good, so we just need to try and optimise that a bit more. But overall, in general I’m quite satisfied, but definitely we need a bit more pace to fight up at the front tomorrow.”

“There’s still a few things that we want to do better, but it’s not like we need to throw around the set-up completely,” he said. “So that’s a good thing.

“We’ll see tomorrow. Is it going to be good enough to fight up front? I don’t know. I always find FP2 is a bit difficult to say with people running [different] engine modes top speed-wise. I guess we’ll see in qualifying."

[Sergej]

Marko:

"I think we are very close. In the end, however, it will be decisive to get the last hundredths out. We still have a few small problems, but in general both Max and the engineers are satisfied with the car."

Do we believe this guy?

no

[search]

Marko:

"I think we are very close. In the end, however, it will be decisive to get the last hundredths out. We still have a few small problems, but in general both Max and the engineers are satisfied with the car."

Do we believe this guy?

Not one bit. He's a certified fraud. That said the general sentiment seems to be car is thereabouts. And also I still don't think Piastri just magically became that much better than Lando around this track. So there's a lot more to wait and watch.

Marko added that Norris may be behind due to the pit lane crash, to be fair. Usually he is the quicker McLaren on Fridays, especially on this kind of track.

The general sound of it was more that Marko was happy about finally having a good day in Singapore.

[venkyhere]

From the FP2 fastest laps data, I could see very little difference b/w the McL39 and the RB21. There were only two datum points where I could see a difference :

1. Instead of the majority 100+/- kph slow corners, when the cars have to deal with 150+/- kph 'lower end medium speed' corners that aren't sharp, ie where there is some 'longer radius duration', the McL's rotation ability from the magic front end suspension, reigns supreme. The same goes for T18-T19 when the corner speed is 200+/- kph and it's long duration. The RB21 can't match the McL39 in such 'long corners' (which is the expected norm). With fuel load, in race conditions, this delta will be magnified.

2. When there is sudden, back-to-back quick direction changes, T11-T12, the RB21 has an edge, it's able to handle lateral pendulum weight transfer much better, Max isn't lifting at all through T12, while both McLarens are.

Of course, all the above, with the caveat assumption that engine modes and fuel loads are very similar.

Norris didn't put his lap together, probably because of so many red/yellow interruptions, nothing much to read into it, he would be stronger then Piastri on this track. If both teams keep the cars same for tomorrow, Quali could be a nailbiter - anyone of Norris/Piastri/Verstappen could be the pole sitter, nothing much to separate, based on today's data. Personally, I expect Norris to clinch pole by 0.1 delta.

[pantherxxx]

VER was quickest in S2, which is made of just slow corners, which were RBR’s main weakness for most of the season.

[Cassius]

Marko:

Do we believe this guy?

Not one bit. He's a certified fraud. That said the general sentiment seems to be car is thereabouts. And also I still don't think Piastri just magically became that much better than Lando around this track. So there's a lot more to wait and watch.

Marko added that Norris may be behind due to the pit lane crash, to be fair. Usually he is the quicker McLaren on Fridays, especially on this kind of track.

The general sound of it was more that Marko was happy about finally having a good day in Singapore.

He is saying he thinks they are close. Verstappen says the same.

1. Why doubt him if he says it with these words?
2. Why be so dependent on other's opinions? It is clear when you look at the fps the car performs well. Purple sectors from the start to the end (which we never saw in Hungary, Zandvoort etc), well-balanced car, no snaps, etc.

As I said in the Mclaren forum this floor upgrade seems to work really well. They have massively improved their main issue of midcorner understeer which shows in low and midspeed corner performance.

I think one of the reasons Marko was so positive is that with this confirmation they might also have fixed the sim/wind tunnel/ track correlation or at least have reduced its impact.

This bodes well for the RB22.