2026 Oracle Red Bull Racing F1 Team

[FW17]

Thank you.
But how narrow is 'floor optimal window' in this era ?
The 'floor-downforce' is now coming from high suction force spread over a large rectangular area, rather than super-high-extreme suction force coming from a pair of venturi tunnels of the GE era (relative proportion of the two factors in the force x area equation). So the 'window of operation' surely has to be much wider compared to GE era. Which in turn means the need for tremendous anti-dive / anti-squat suspension geometry is much lesser, I reckon ; and in exchange providing a much better cornering feel to the driver & much better kerb riding ability, by having a conventional suspension geometry and softer suspension stiffness w.r.t the GE cars.
But that is 'vanilla/conventional' thinking from me. Obviously 3 out of the 4 teams have seen something more nuanced and have stuck to the aggressive anti-dive/anti-squat.
I should have framed my question better - what makes 'almost-nil' longitudinal movement of the floor in high speed corners so critical in 2026, when it was fine to have movement in 2021 ? Am I even asking the right question ? Does anti-dive geometry still being present, have anything to do with high speed cornering ?

The current floors offer a wider window of ride height than the last GE cars. While some 8 teams have chose not to use the wide window 2 have gone for the wide window. I guess it is easier to design a floor with a narrow window rather than for a wider window.

It is early days, the front wing getting closer to the road at low speeds during braking has not been exploited yet by RB.

That still doesn't asnwer my Q : what role does anti-dive geometry play in high speed corners (long and short) ?

The window of the floor is going to be dictated by the front

When the font wing gets too powerful with relative to the speed of the car, tipping forward, there is going to be too much front end for a high speed corner. This will force instability at the rear and driver will have to work harder through the corner.

In comparison the anti-dive is going to hold the wing at more optimal place and not allowing the front to get too powerful.

[Gillian]

Max had just enough to stay in front, if he had gotten on these tires a lap earlier Kimi might have gotten him.

Totally agree on that. Getting that P2 is great because Mercedes was the better car for now. They need to find a bit more if they want to fight Mercedes, but they're getting there.

[avantman]

Hannah Schmitz now officially — the most overrated F1 strategist of all time.

If they were going for the offset to try the new mediums I might have understood but to go on the hards and not that big a difference in laps seemed a bit poor. She is normally pretty good with the calls but today was an error.

When was the last time she actually made a truly good race defining call, which allowed Max or his teammate to secure a win or even a podium that wouldn't have been possible otherwise? All I could remember over the past few years are either very standard, obvious calls (ie no-brainers) or very poor ones, such as Monaco, Hungary 2024, Brazil 2025. There were other examples.

[pantherxxx]

Maybe this package was so big, that they need more than 1 weekend to really dial it.

[Gillian]

Maybe this package was so big, that they need more than 1 weekend to really dial it.

Difficult to judge:
- Crash in Q (out of position for race)
- Issues during race (undetermined)
- Extreme weather (hot)
- Lack of high speed sections
- Verstappen always very fast in Austria

Positives:
+ Very good braking
+ Slow stuff as good as it was
+ Car looks more stable

On fresh rubber close to Mercedes but bit worse degradation it seems. Silverstone will show how good the car is in the high speed stuff. My 2 cents for what it's worth: Car possibly second best overall, but Mercedes is definitely not beaten yet.

[Vettel165]

Amazing was at this race. Great stuff by Max,feels like a win.

[Badger]

Maybe this package was so big, that they need more than 1 weekend to really dial it.

Difficult to judge:
- Crash in Q (out of position for race)
- Issues during race (undetermined)
- Extreme weather (hot)
- Lack of high speed sections
- Verstappen always very fast in Austria

Positives:
+ Very good braking
+ Slow stuff as good as it was
+ Car looks more stable

On fresh rubber close to Mercedes but bit worse degradation it seems. Silverstone will show how good the car is in the high speed stuff. My 2 cents for what it's worth: Car possibly second best overall, but Mercedes is definitely not beaten yet.

Lack of high speed? Austria is fairly balanced between high speed (T7, 9, 10), medium speed (T1, 6) and low speed (T3, 4). Fewer total corners but more laps remember.

[Gillian]

Maybe this package was so big, that they need more than 1 weekend to really dial it.

Difficult to judge:
- Crash in Q (out of position for race)
- Issues during race (undetermined)
- Extreme weather (hot)
- Lack of high speed sections
- Verstappen always very fast in Austria

Positives:
+ Very good braking
+ Slow stuff as good as it was
+ Car looks more stable

On fresh rubber close to Mercedes but bit worse degradation it seems. Silverstone will show how good the car is in the high speed stuff. My 2 cents for what it's worth: Car possibly second best overall, but Mercedes is definitely not beaten yet.

Lack of high speed? Austria is fairly balanced between high speed (T7, 9, 10), medium speed (T1, 6) and low speed (T3, 4). Fewer total corners but more laps remember.

I'd label T7 as medium myself but fair point, it's a short track. I still reservere judgment until I see the car through maggots and becketts.

Edit:
Verstappen reporting he had some braking and (rear) suspension issues during the race ...

[organic]

A red bull employee says publicly on a personal social media that they are glad the update worked and one day it will be reported what this upgrade included and it will blow everyone's minds. This is what they've said

[Sergej]

A red bull employee says publicly on a personal social media that they are glad the update worked and one day it will be reported what this upgrade included and it will blow everyone's minds. This is what they've said

In the sense that it was bigger than what declared ? or maybe a very significant weight loss ?

[Badger]