2025 Oracle Red Bull Racing F1 Team

[Vettel165]

Barcelona is a track on which Max is amazing, now we have no chicane. There are mainly just medium-high speed corners. Again keeping the tyres alive will be the key. I really hope after next sunday I can say, "we can fight, now we can fight". Otherwise I will just enjoy the races until the end of the season. Nothing lasts forever in f1.

[f1isgood]

now regarding the Spain TD

Sky Italy commentator said they spoke with Andrea Stella who told them off records "I'm looking forward to Barcelona to show we will demolish them" they are confident it won't change a thing

I think there's more hope coming from the work Red Bull is doing around the rear corner, rather than this TD

Why do we know about this, if he said off record. Very nice journo ethic from the commentator then.

An oxymoron.

[Sergej]

now regarding the Spain TD

Sky Italy commentator said they spoke with Andrea Stella who told them off records "I'm looking forward to Barcelona to show we will demolish them" they are confident it won't change a thing

I think there's more hope coming from the work Red Bull is doing around the rear corner, rather than this TD

Why do we know about this, if he said off record. Very nice journo ethic from the commentator then.

meaning he said it chatting in the paddock outside TV interview, like most of info we get from journos I'd say

[avantman]

Another pathetic performance from the strategy group. Just pathetic. Got extremely lucky once in Brazil now they are they doing the same thing time after time again hoping to get lucky once again. Wasted opportunity in Australia, wasted opportunity to try at least undercut Piastri twice.

[avantman]

Only dropping 3 points to PIA.

which is 6 in direct championship fight. but is there really a fight? were red bull really considered piastri their rival today? all I saw today was a bunch of gamblers trying to hit the jackpot, instead of beating their direct rival on merit, having plenty of opportunities to do so.

[Bill]

Only dropping 3 points to PIA.

which is 6 in direct championship fight. but is there really a fight? were red bull really considered piastri their rival today? all I saw today was a bunch of gamblers trying to hit the jackpot, instead of beating their direct rival on merit, having plenty of opportunities to do so.

the track is ass how do you beat your opponent on merit

[avantman]

Only dropping 3 points to PIA.

which is 6 in direct championship fight. but is there really a fight? were red bull really considered piastri their rival today? all I saw today was a bunch of gamblers trying to hit the jackpot, instead of beating their direct rival on merit, having plenty of opportunities to do so.

the track is ass how do you beat your opponent on merit

just like they used to on multiple occasions in the past - by executing under/overcut. they had the pace on piastri.

[AR3-GP]

They have to win in Spain. Critical race weekend for WDC.

[FittingMechanics]

They have to win in Spain. Critical race weekend for WDC.

If McLaren does well, the amount of disappointment will be incredible.

[AR3-GP]

They have to win in Spain. Critical race weekend for WDC.

If McLaren does well, the amount of disappointment will be incredible.

Why wouldn't Mclaren do well? They've always had a fast car and say the TD won't change anything. Red Bull still beat them in Imola, pre-TD. So they need to carry that form to Barcelona and win the race.

[Paa]

Another pathetic performance from the strategy group. Just pathetic. Got extremely lucky once in Brazil now they are they doing the same thing time after time again hoping to get lucky once again. Wasted opportunity in Australia, wasted opportunity to try at least undercut Piastri twice.

If there was a mistake, it was about tyre allocation. Having only 1 hard and 1 medium for the race really limited their options.
There was a slight chance undercutting Piastri at some point, but then there would have been like ~30 or so laps on used softs. That could have ended in a disaster.
Going for an early stop was not going to work either, we could see it with Tsunoda. As Lawson and the Williams created a snail train.

But I agree, having 1 more hard or medium would have made podium possible I think, which is indeed 6 points vs Piastri and 3 vs Norris.

[vorticism]

2024 Red Bull: Verstappen & 2024 car
2024 Mclaren: 2024 car

2025 Red Bull: Verstappen & 2024 car
2025 Mclaren: 2025 car

RB are milking the RB20; two seasons for the price of one, dev wise. All resources directed at 2026? But this regs change is a double regs change, and they won't have an artist-director like Newey at the helm providing a single vision (that I know of) for the ship to chart a course toward. That seems to have been a main strength of theirs in 2009 & 2022. Those strengths however were never defendable, being mostly chassis & aero; visible items given for free. Millions in development given away, unlike f.e. Merc's advantage across several seasons, hidden beneath bodywork, sealed within monoliths of metal, behind then-legal garage blinds. When the other teams catch up to RB, the team's relative weaknesses are revealed (suspension, strat, powertrain, team ops, etc). Which brings you to the Verstappen factor. The gap to his teammates suggests he carries the team more and more as the car performance delta minimizes. He won RB a title both at the end of and the start of a regs cycle. All that said, the fact that Newey was given what he was, and Verstappen was given what he was, means that there is or was something unique about the arrangement of Red Bull, their presence within motorsport, the F1 team, about Horner, about various unnamed personnel. That's what 2026 onward might show us.

There is no in-season/post-season IP protection in F1, but this arrangement gives uneven power distribution among the various parts of the car--bodywork, suspension, engine, drivetrain. Visibles and non-visibles. Does that matter? Racing Point were punished for mimicking Mercedes bodywork, but this year there are 18 RB20s on the grid and 2 RB19s. What of royalties? A reward system for being trendsetters. I suppose that's what the WCC is for. The cycle of new regs leading to spec series is familiar. Does it matter? It's been inevitable, may always be. Should convergence be rewarded? Discouraged? Or left alone.

[avantman]

Another pathetic performance from the strategy group. Just pathetic. Got extremely lucky once in Brazil now they are they doing the same thing time after time again hoping to get lucky once again. Wasted opportunity in Australia, wasted opportunity to try at least undercut Piastri twice.

If there was a mistake, it was about tyre allocation. Having only 1 hard and 1 medium for the race really limited their options.
There was a slight chance undercutting Piastri at some point, but then there would have been like ~30 or so laps on used softs. That could have ended in a disaster.
Going for an early stop was not going to work either, we could see it with Tsunoda. As Lawson and the Williams created a snail train.

But I agree, having 1 more hard or medium would have made podium possible I think, which is indeed 6 points vs Piastri and 3 vs Norris.

nothing to do with their tire allocation. they had pretty much guaranteed chance to OVERcut piastri on first occasion, unless they made a very bad pitstop, but decided to go for the win hoping for 1 out of 100 chance of safety car in the following few laps. Mclaren made a big mistake on a pitstop - worth 1.5s loss, what other presents do hyped up hannah schmitz need from their rivals? just gift them the win by retiring both cars? you are being gifted a golden opportunity at monaco - you take it and get a race position in order to close the gap in the wdc. do something....instead they just passively wait wait and wait...I frankly do not understand what happened to that team, If australia was already bad enough, this one was just horrible.

[FittingMechanics]

Another pathetic performance from the strategy group. Just pathetic. Got extremely lucky once in Brazil now they are they doing the same thing time after time again hoping to get lucky once again. Wasted opportunity in Australia, wasted opportunity to try at least undercut Piastri twice.

Honestly I think they maximized the chances they had. Gambling on a red flag was a good idea and could have given them a massive +20 points swing.

Undercutting Piastri was not really on cards, especially as they started on hards.

[venkyhere]

I have a feeling that Redbull have blundered by wasting their 2nd medium in FP3. They ran a hard in FP1 for a few laps, but I don't know whether they have 'handed it back' or are keeping it for the race. Max has 1H, 1M and a bunch of used softs. The C6 won't last much on the Redbull (even if it does on the McLaren and Ferrari) so that would be bad starting tyre, unless there is a red flag over the first 4-5 laps ; which can't be predicted. I have a feeling they have blown their podium chances vide their sub optimal tyre allocation choices.

This factor came to bite them on their ass, eventually. H was the wrong tyre to start. Two Ms and one H was the ideal combo - start on the Ms and undercut Piastri whenever he is backing up. The two VSCs had to be 'wasted without pitting' and continue on H, because the 3rd tyre was a used soft. And the last stop had to be postponed indefinitely (allowing the top three to 'catch up' 3-4 carlengths behind) in the vain hope for a redflag (in a race where no one was 'trying' any wheel to wheel action). I am afraid Redbull have to accept the sub optimal tyre blunder they made on Saturday. FP3 could have been run on S alone. Had they started on M and then used one of the VSCs to pit into a H, leapfrogging Piastri was definitely possible, given how 'edgy & unclean' his driving was. Instead, they went into a 'surely 2-stop' race with a 1-stop tyre allocation. And duly paid the price.
Anyway, notwithstanding this error, P4 (no positions lost) was a sort of success by itself, given how slower the car was to the McLaren and LeClerc.

Barcelona is a track on which Max is amazing, now we have no chicane. There are mainly just medium-high speed corners. Again keeping the tyres alive will be the key. I really hope after next sunday I can say, "we can fight, now we can fight". Otherwise I will just enjoy the races until the end of the season. Nothing lasts forever in f1.

Glad to read this 'birds eye view' comment from you, given how much of a diehard fan you are of Max&Redbull. We are here to 'enjoy' and chew the 'armchair expertise' gum amongst ourselves. We have no skin in the game.