2025 Oracle Red Bull Racing F1 Team

[Vettel165]

The car looked stable on the onboard, just had more understeer and lack of front-end rotation comparing to Austin. In theory they wanted to protect the tyres, this setup might work better in the race. But there is not a lot of hope left. We will hear each other again after the race, when we will most probably debate how the season is now really over…

[pantherxxx]

Unless Norris does something stupid and he is out of the race, which wouldn't be that rare event to happen.

[Mcl_G10]

I think for max today the main thing is to maximise as much as he can. If he finishes ahead of oscar and continues to close the gap to the leading mclaren driver in the championship then he will remain in it.

Its is not beyond the realms of possibilities that come vegas that max can win and mclaren can finish behind 2x ferrari and Russell (so p5 and p6). This is even before factoring in how crazy the san Paulo gp can often be in tricky conditions.

Theres still alot of hope for redbull and max fans.

[search]

Why did they put on a new floor! They must have seen the S2, don't understand why they didn't change back to it for FP3...

Marko didn't go into detail (whether it was the floor or not), but after Quali he said in Austrian TV that they only realized after FP3 what's the solution. They know why they lose so much time, particularly in sector 2, but there was not enough time to fix it anymore.

[ME4ME]

It is not enough to outscore Piastri or the leading Mclaren each time. Max has to make significant inroads and ultimately overcome a 40 point deficit. When this race is done, one less race remains to do this. It is not an equal playing field points-wise until the end.

[Henk_v]

He needs an 8 point per race "pace" on piastri and has another 14 to "waste" on Norris. This is the hardest race. If verstappen reaches the podium and keeps some cars between him and Piastri, not much is lost.

[Gillian]

And what's the point of that ? Same thing happened with an unbalanced car in 2024. Got to the lead. Then what happened ? All we have to do to find out what happens, is listen to what Max has to say about what it will be in the race. He should fight for his life, inorder to finish ahead of Piastri & even if he does that, has to pray for rain in Brazil.

Piastri is not really the problem at this point, losing too much points to Norris is.

Not really. As long as there is a net gain on the championship leader (irrelevant who that is) it is still all to play for. Second place is of no meaning whatsoever.

Plus, the closer the McLaren drivers are, the bigger the mayhem near the end of the season. We need mayhem.

It's not irrelevant. Piastri is losing points left, right and center, just like end of 2024. In contrast Norris is performing adequately. It's not unlikely to see Piastri of the podium in the coming races, including this one. But Norris? It will be a lot more difficult to take points from Norris in the final races. Norris is the real threat, not Piastri. It's not just about the current points deficit. It's about how likely Verstappen can overcome the current deficit to either driver. A Norris win and Verstappen of the podium, which is very likely bar any unforeseen shenanigans, will be extremely difficult to overcome.

[venkyhere]

Why did they put on a new floor! They must have seen the S2, don't understand why they didn't change back to it for FP3...

Marko didn't go into detail (whether it was the floor or not), but after Quali he said in Austrian TV that they only realized after FP3 what's the solution. They know why they lose so much time, particularly in sector 2, but there was not enough time to fix it anymore.

If I have learnt one thing about F1 and can comment with confidence , it's this -
"Helmut Marko is not an engineer, his comments about the car have no value, the team tell him 'something' to keep him quiet during meetings so that they can get on with the actual discussion"

[Henk_v]

All eyes on Hamilton then, who has declared he will will start "racey" and "has nothing to lose"

[Badger]

“Ham smash”.

[Paa]

Not sure it was a good idea to add a new floor, once the car was finally in a good place.

But if they add the update why.on boogie track like Mexico and when Max misses FP1?

It is also possible that update is good, they just did not have time to tune it right
At least Max was happy with the balance on Friday, they were just slow on the long runs. Seems they have ruined the balance while chasing race pace, while not really improving performance.

Now they are back on relying on pure luck.

[Vettel165]

Indeed for me after yesterday its season over for Max, we have no chance. I already gave up. Better luck in 2026 or 2027. Because now we have to expect a miracle to still have a shot, and you cant expect it. The car must be quick enough…

But thank you Max and Red Bull for at least making it more interesting in the last races, but its too late.

[Gillian]

Indeed for me after yesterday its season over for Max, we have no chance. I already gave up. Better luck in 2026 or 2027. Because now we have to expect a miracle to still have a shot, and you cant expect it. The car must be quick enough…

But thank you Max and Red Bull for at least making it more interesting in the last races, but its too late.

Let's watch the race first, you never know what might happen.

[basti313]

Indeed for me after yesterday its season over for Max, we have no chance. I already gave up. Better luck in 2026 or 2027. Because now we have to expect a miracle to still have a shot, and you cant expect it. The car must be quick enough…

But thank you Max and Red Bull for at least making it more interesting in the last races, but its too late.

Let's watch the race first, you never know what might happen.

Well, should be clear after the first lap...

Still, I think the trajectory is worrying. I actually thought that RedBull as a genuine edge now. But everything we saw up till now in Mexico is the pre Monza car behavior. So highly unlikely, that we see a car for the last races that is on par with the McLaren. Of course the McLaren will have its issues in Vegas, but the RedBull will not be good either...and may be miles away in one of the other races.

[DDopey]

Not sure it was a good idea to add a new floor, once the car was finally in a good place.

But if they add the update why.on boogie track like Mexico and when Max misses FP1?

It is also possible that update is good, they just did not have time to tune it right
At least Max was happy with the balance on Friday, they were just slow on the long runs. Seems they have ruined the balance while chasing race pace, while not really improving performance.

Now they are back on relying on pure luck.

Thing is Yuki looked even a bit closer (whole still not reaching Q3), and he is running without the new floor. So I am not getting it.