2025 Oracle Red Bull Racing F1 Team

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Better start with positives than negatives, but I also remember kind of same words after first tests last year so....long way to go.

But internally to the team Verstappen was not being positive about the car's handling at that time. I doubt that if the car again had similar mistakes or they hadn't fixed the balance issues that Verstappen would be so chipper. He hid the truth from the public before because they were so far ahead & didn't want to let the others know their weakness. Now there isn't that same factor.

Things are different now. Verstappen and Marko are being positive and the times themselves look good

Max Verstappen is very positive after first testing day

"In terms of driving, everything felt good. Only good surprises, so that's positive. We don't know yet where we are in terms of pace, but everything works well and the car does what I want. We have everything under control and that's the only thing we can hope for at the start of my test."

Marko:

“the long runs were very competitive. they were the fastest (of all). the car is more predictable and reacts in a normal way. all the problems we had last year, i think they are now much better or have at least been fixed.”

"Max was also positive. he said the car is a bit more complex, but it's also better as a whole. whatever direction we want to go, the car responds in the right way. also in terms of tyre wear, it looked positive.”

well you can't know what Max says internally with the team, and even though he is always quite frank, you never know, so I will keep my expectation bar low for the moment

"Things are different now" that's what I hope to hear in a few months time, not now.

I mean things are different now in the sense that the environment is completely different to testing 2024. RB are not the favourites, they can't be confident that they have a few tenths advantage on the others as they had at the start of '24. And more importantly, the false promise of the rb20 has likely made everyone more cautious, and yet they are this positive.

[Rikhart]

Well, this is certainly encouraging. I flat out ignored Marko, since he is all over the place with his analysis, but Verstappen usually provides to the point information.

[pantherxxx]

Red Bull
First Lawson, then Verstappen. Despite not being among the pre-test favorites for many, Red Bull immediately showed a stiff and low ride height. With the floor making close contact with the asphalt, the new Milton Keynes car performed well—especially in the hands of Max Verstappen.

The Dutchman, on track in the afternoon, finished third overall. More than his lap time—which is secondary in testing—what stood out was his remarkable consistency, producing highly stable stints.

[AR3-GP]

Bahrain is just one track. There is still a lot to discover. How does it handle the curbs and the street circuits? Is it still front limited? Bahrain is rear-limited. Will there be graining at the usual circuits? Will they ruin the car with floor upgrades like the past? Will they struggle with in-season development? How will the flex wing ban change the playing field? What will happen when it's actually hot (Bahrain is unusually cold right now). Today is only a very small part of what the future will hold.

With that said, in 2023 and 2024 the Red Bull was troubled on the harder compound tires. In 2024, Red Bull's pace near the end of the races became much slower than rivals. So far, these demons don't seem present. The C2 stints were reasonable in very cool conditions whereas in the past it would have been like "driving on ice" (Canada '23, Spain '24, Austria '24, etc). Ver also seemed pleased with the long running on lower fuel loads which was a big weakness last year where pace would just collapse as fuel burned off.

Positive comments are better than negative comments so there's that, but still probably too early to conclude anything.

[Sergej]

Bahrain is just one track. There is still a lot to discover. How does it handle the curbs and the street circuits? Is it still front limited? Bahrain is rear-limited. Will there be graining at the usual circuits? Will they ruin the car with floor upgrades like the past? Will they struggle with in-season development? How will the flex wing ban change the playing field? What will happen when it's actually hot (Bahrain is unusually cold right now). Today is only a very small part of what the future will hold.

exactly, and, to add even more uncertainty, there's a Damocle's sword which will hit in Spain: will it affect the balance of the car ? in which measure ?

[Dee]

Bahrain is just one track. There is still a lot to discover. How does it handle the curbs and the street circuits? Is it still front limited? Bahrain is rear-limited. Will there be graining at the usual circuits? Will they ruin the car with floor upgrades like the past? Will they struggle with in-season development? How will the flex wing ban change the playing field? What will happen when it's actually hot (Bahrain is unusually cold right now). Today is only a very small part of what the future will hold.

exactly, and, to add even more uncertainty, there's a Damocle's sword which will hit in Spain: will it affect the balance of the car ? in which measure ?

The test is reducing flex from 15mm to 10mm, its not banning it completely. Whatever RB have done, they have found gains as last year the front wing barely flexed and even if they have to reduce, losing 5mm is better than losing 15.

[f1isgood]

Interesting. I think the car might not be too bad from the comments so far but I will wait. So far, McLaren still remain (IMO at least) the favorites to win the titles this year.

[f1isgood]

Bahrain is just one track. There is still a lot to discover. How does it handle the curbs and the street circuits? Is it still front limited? Bahrain is rear-limited. Will there be graining at the usual circuits? Will they ruin the car with floor upgrades like the past? Will they struggle with in-season development? How will the flex wing ban change the playing field? What will happen when it's actually hot (Bahrain is unusually cold right now). Today is only a very small part of what the future will hold.

With that said, in 2023 and 2024 the Red Bull was troubled on the harder compound tires. In 2024, Red Bull's pace near the end of the races became much slower than rivals. So far, these demons don't seem present. The C2 stints were reasonable in very cool conditions whereas in the past it would have been like "driving on ice" (Canada '23, Spain '24, Austria '24, etc). Ver also seemed pleased with the long running on lower fuel loads which was a big weakness last year where pace would just collapse as fuel burned off.

Positive comments are better than negative comments so there's that, but still probably too early to conclude anything.

All factually very important points. Even if Red Bull win Bahrain, which is the fourth race, it says nothing about performance elsewhere. The same holds true for the other three early races of Japan, China and Australia as well.

Time will tell and the clock watch never lies in F1.

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In the paddock, there are rumours that Red Bull will bring an upgrade package for Friday before the end of Bahrain testing, much like 2022.

Horner says no: "This will fundamentally be the car we start the season with, perhaps with minor changes by then." In fact, there is talk in the paddock that a larger update is due to arrive on Friday, the last of the three test days in Bahrain.

This is according to Christian Menath of Motorsport Magazin

https://www.motorsport-magazin.com/form ... stfahrten/

[marcel171281]

In the paddock, there are rumours that Red Bull will bring an upgrade package for Friday before the end of Bahrain testing, much like 2022.

Horner says no: "This will fundamentally be the car we start the season with, perhaps with minor changes by then." In fact, there is talk in the paddock that a larger update is due to arrive on Friday, the last of the three test days in Bahrain.

This is according to Christian Menath of Motorsport

https://www.motorsport-magazin.com/form ... stfahrten/

Could explain the sudden driver swap and why Verstappen is running friday instead of Lawson (first announcement was the other way around)

[organic]

In the paddock, there are rumours that Red Bull will bring an upgrade package for Friday before the end of Bahrain testing, much like 2022.

Horner says no: "This will fundamentally be the car we start the season with, perhaps with minor changes by then." In fact, there is talk in the paddock that a larger update is due to arrive on Friday, the last of the three test days in Bahrain.

This is according to Christian Menath of Motorsport

https://www.motorsport-magazin.com/form ... stfahrten/

Could explain the sudden driver swap and why Verstappen is running friday instead of Lawson (first announcement was the other way around)

True, but so does the rain on Thursday

[Sieper]

Tomorrow possibility of rain Might be another reason.

[Vettel165]

From AMuS: Red Bull Technical Director, Pierre Wache.

We have made significant changes to the car, but most of them are not visible.The entire cooling system has been modified because it severely limited us in aerodynamic development last year.The entire floor has been revised to enlarge the car's operating window. For this, we responded to the interpretation of the association regarding the flexibility of the front wing.

We have continued the path we initiated in the last races of 2024. Our goal was to expand the operating window, to make the handling more predictable and consistent. Bahrain is not an optimal test track for the problem we want to address. Here, due to the layout, there are only minor balance shifts compared to last year, and a large working window is not required either. Only in Melbourne will we know how well we have worked. The cars have to go over curbs, and turning into medium-speed corners is a challenge.

https://x.com/JunaidSamodien_/status/18 ... 1874484593

[Paa]

These are surprisingly positive words from Verstappen, he is usually very conservative with his remarks.
Which is a good start, and I guess at this point it's all that can be said with all the unknown factors.

[Sergej]

Last day for Lawson, will he do a race sim ?