2025 Oracle Red Bull Racing F1 Team

[pantherxxx]

Mexico was a special case — the asphalt temperature was nearly 50°C, and with air density about 20% lower than usual, it’s almost impossible to cool the tyres, even on the straights. In those conditions, McLaren had a clear advantage. But in the remaining races, Verstappen is still the clear favourite — he’s beaten the McLarens in four of the five races since Monza, when they introduced their upgrades.

[Henk_v]

Judging the venturi shape by how the light reflects on the the intersection of 2 unrelated pieces of bodywork (floor top and sidepod) might not be too helpful.

[f1isgood]

While we are discussing the gamut of 'possible favourable outcomes in the next 4 races' at length ; what we should discuss instead is 'what floor is going to be used henceforth, the mexico one or the monza one ?' , because after looking at a picture posted in the car thread, the change done on the Mexico floor seems 'too big' compared to the Monza floor.


https://d3cm515ijfiu6w.cloudfront.net/w ... arison.jpg


Monza floor's diffuser kickup starts beneath the 'hexagon' sticker location, while the Mexico floor's diffuser kickup starts beneath the 'HD' sticker location. Basically, a 'longer' venturi neck in the old has been shortened in the new, to increase the effective diffuser 'volume' but making the expansion 'gentler'. That is an enormous change (perhaps this is an old RB20 or early RB21 floor circled back into the pool ?) -- no wonder they struggled and didn't achieve the optimal setup in Mexico (perhaps Max missing FP1 did more damage than they expected or perhaps they are again 'away from the sweet spot' without the Monza floor).

What floor(s) are they going to use in the next four races ? I think that will be the turnkey, rather than relative driver performances across teams.

PS : in my opinion, if they get the new floor to work, it will be mega, as seen in the laptimes Max was posting on softs in the last stint of Mexico GP - the gills opened up on the engine cover basically destroy the air that is hitting the rear DF structures (a problem that was minimal for Mclaren), apart from increasing drag of course. Which means the reason Max's softs lasted for 33+ (or 32 or whatever) number of laps (like they did for Norris in his first stint), can't be all be because of 'driver expertise' , the car still had proper downforce in the rear, and the share of rear DF that was coming from the floor had to be more.

I think lack of running of softs is what cost them. The medium was a --- tire for everyone. Even Norris pace is not that great given the McLaren inherently had a pace advantage especially on the mediums.

Nothing to do with the floor etc. They were misguided. In Brazil they have no time to sort it out so we will see how that goes.

[AR3-GP]

Nothing to do with the floor etc. They were misguided. In Brazil they have no time to sort it out so we will see how that goes.

Statistically speaking, sprint weekends favor Max despite the apparent downsides.

[f1isgood]

Nothing to do with the floor etc. They were misguided. In Brazil they have no time to sort it out so we will see how that goes.

Statistically speaking, sprint weekends favor Max despite the apparent downsides.

It's simply reflective of how others need time to get their eyes in versus Max who's on the limit from the get go.