2026 Oracle Red Bull Racing F1 Team

[Badger]

According to Corriere della Sera (which in my opinion is not very reliable, but still) Russell has been confirmed for 2027 and will be announced very soon. We all know what this would mean.

Not necessarily.

DailyMail

Max Verstappen in secret talks with McLaren over sensational switch from Red Bull: £80m-a-year star could move as early as next year, with Oscar Piastri going the other way

'It is an idea McLaren are keen on,' confirmed one source. 'If it comes off it may be in 2028, but it could even be earlier.'

[Sergej]

Moving to McLaren would be very surprising for me, I see Max very bad fitted in McLaren environment and culture, but who knows.

[Paa]

Moving to McLaren would be very surprising for me, I see Max very bad fitted in McLaren environment and culture, but who knows.

GP heading there (as a potential TP) would make it much smoother.

[marcel171281]

I see Max very bad fitted in McLaren environment and culture, but who knows.

Why?

[ME4ME]

Moving to McLaren would be very surprising for me, I see Max very bad fitted in McLaren environment and culture, but who knows.

I agree. I would be shocked.

Verstappen and Papaya rules, it's not compatible.
Also Verstappen is demanding, he'd want the team to concentrate on him, get priority.
He also isn't the one to be kind when the famous Mclaren strategy mishaps happen.

Brown and Stella manage the team in a somewhat romantic vision type of style, they want everything to be fair, overly correct and commercially appropriate. Verstappen cares about none of that, only (him) winning is good enough.

Also it's unclear if Verstappen would be allowed to do any racing outside of F1. Or do race-weekend simracing for that matter.

And there is also the fact that Mclaren are still a costumer team and Wolff has said to be willing to cut one teams supply at the next possible opportunity. Red Bull meanwhile has a great PU and has all the integration benefits that come with making their own unit.

[marcel171281]

Moving to McLaren would be very surprising for me, I see Max very bad fitted in McLaren environment and culture, but who knows.

I agree. I would be shocked.

Verstappen and Papaya rules, it's not compatible.
Also Verstappen is demanding, he'd want the team to concentrate on him, get priority.
He also isn't the one to be kind when the famous Mclaren strategy mishaps happen.

Brown and Stella manage the team in a somewhat romantic vision type of style, they want everything to be fair, overly correct and commercially appropriate. Verstappen cares about none of that, only (him) winning is good enough.

Also it's unclear if Verstappen would be allowed to do any racing outside of F1. Or do race-weekend simracing for that matter.

And there is also the fact that Mclaren are still a costumer team and Wolff has said to be willing to cut one teams supply at the next possible opportunity. Red Bull meanwhile has a great PU and has all the integration benefits that come with making their own unit.

You don't think that IF Verstappen signs a McLaren contract, that all this is part of that contract. Verstappen would never sign it if he will be forbidden to do stuff outside F1. And why would McLaren don't want that in the first place? Free publicity. Plus, McLaren has there own Hypercar program from next year, you do the math.

And papaya rules? They are only valid if the drivers are close. They won't be. Maybe in qually every now and then, but over a year, Norris would be at least 100 point behind.

[Sergej]

Moving to McLaren would be very surprising for me, I see Max very bad fitted in McLaren environment and culture, but who knows.

I agree. I would be shocked.

Verstappen and Papaya rules, it's not compatible.
Also Verstappen is demanding, he'd want the team to concentrate on him, get priority.
He also isn't the one to be kind when the famous Mclaren strategy mishaps happen.

Brown and Stella manage the team in a somewhat romantic vision type of style, they want everything to be fair, overly correct and commercially appropriate. Verstappen cares about none of that, only (him) winning is good enough.

Also it's unclear if Verstappen would be allowed to do any racing outside of F1. Or do race-weekend simracing for that matter.

And there is also the fact that Mclaren are still a costumer team and Wolff has said to be willing to cut one teams supply at the next possible opportunity. Red Bull meanwhile has a great PU and has all the integration benefits that come with making their own unit.

yeah, basically I agree with all of this. Doesn't mean that certain divergencies cannot be tempered, still I would be surprised to see that marriage.

[Sergej]

Lol apparently even Monaghan is leaving !
https://racingnews365.com/exclusive-key ... ve-f1-team

[organic]

Moving to McLaren would be very surprising for me, I see Max very bad fitted in McLaren environment and culture, but who knows.

I agree. I would be shocked.

Verstappen and Papaya rules, it's not compatible.
Also Verstappen is demanding, he'd want the team to concentrate on him, get priority.
He also isn't the one to be kind when the famous Mclaren strategy mishaps happen.

Brown and Stella manage the team in a somewhat romantic vision type of style, they want everything to be fair, overly correct and commercially appropriate. Verstappen cares about none of that, only (him) winning is good enough.

Also it's unclear if Verstappen would be allowed to do any racing outside of F1. Or do race-weekend simracing for that matter.

And there is also the fact that Mclaren are still a costumer team and Wolff has said to be willing to cut one teams supply at the next possible opportunity. Red Bull meanwhile has a great PU and has all the integration benefits that come with making their own unit.

Stella will be gone and at Ferrari as tp soon

[organic]

Lol apparently even Monaghan is leaving !
https://racingnews365.com/exclusive-key ... ve-f1-team

Ralf Schumacher.. Even a broken clock etc

[Valeo]

Doesn´t look too bad so far considering the trouble early on and the lack of laps.

[euv2]

Only fp1 but Mercedes looking very strong as usual, even in race sim. Ferrari have bolted on the new PU but ran it conservatively like RBR. Red bull looked very poor under braking, could see the instability on cam, they improved it a bit for the 2nd set, early telemetry shows them lagging behind Mercedes by quite a bit in fast/med speed corners, down on top speed too (PU mode), could also be running more fuel.

[pantherxxx]

Only fp1 but Mercedes looking very strong as usual, even in race sim. Ferrari have bolted on the new PU but ran it conservatively like RBR. Red bull looked very poor under braking, could see the instability on cam, they improved it a bit for the 2nd set, early telemetry shows them lagging behind Mercedes by quite a bit in fast/med speed corners, down on top speed too (PU mode), could also be running more fuel.

More fuel can explain the lack of pace in corners, at least partially. In Monaco they were down 5 tenths in FP1, and then Verstappen almost got pole. Now it's just 2.8 tenths, so that looks promising really.

[Badger]

Car looked pretty solid, a bit unbalanced at this stage but definitely more planted in the high/medium speed. Once you account for deployment and getting blocked in the penultimate corner the pace was actually a few tenths better than ANT, admittedly on a slightly more mature track. FP1 though, lots of unknowns.

[euv2]

Team Principal Laurent Mekies hopes that Red Bull will still be two or three tenths behind after this weekend in Austria.

"At the beginning of the season, it was more than a second, so that would be admirable in that relatively short time." #F1

https://x.com/ErikvHaren/status/2070507 ... 51495?s=20