f1isgood wrote: ↑07 Nov 2025, 21:42
COTA requires a different balance though. It's a much more bumpier track and actually has some real high-speed corners and straights which suit these generations of Red Bull cars.
You cannot obviously ignore that the car is quite tricky to get right around this track.
There could be deeper problems but it's all too early to conclude.
In case the floor is a failure then the technical team has work cut out. Nothing more to add.
Disagree.
If RB21 could match (or even surpass in race) the McL39 in COTA S3, in two qualifying sessions, and it can't do the same in Interlagos S2, something is definitely 'broken' (in Max's words) with the car. It is definitely not a 'tweakable' issue, but something more basic. Without S2, there is no point driving this track - if it were upto me, I would break parc ferme, bolt on the Austin floor and Austin setup (even if it means sacrificing top speed in S1/S3) and imitate the specific setup that was tuned to optimize S3 in COTA. Run the sprint, and do nothing but monitor S2 times. All it needs to do is match the S2 times posted by McLaren in tomorrow's sprint (wet or dry) - that's the reference. Doesn't matter finishing P20, because with this current setup, wet sprint is going to be P20 anyway. That will be a good 'evaluation' of whether the Mexico floor is a disaster (being greedy and going for more downforce) , and whether to treat the Austin setup as 'base' (which can be tweaked) for the Sunday race and the 3 other circuits. Forget the WDC, concentrate on coming 2nd in WCC.