2025 Oracle Red Bull Racing F1 Team

[f1isgood]

I think if we can pole and Norris can get stuck behind George, we can win like last year.

Better say, if Max can lead after T1. With this car and the run to Barcelona T1, will be very tough to keep a theoretical pole.

Yeah fair lol.

[AR3-GP]

They were further away on Friday in Imola. Barcelona is a torture track for tires. Norris could have been simulating 2 stopper pace. He only did 4 laps and the first was with DRS on the main straight and he exceeded track limits at T11 on the penultimate lap of that short run, so definetely pushing. Considering the traffic situation of Max's 2nd stint, I would say that this was a very solid day.

Also, as I said elsewhere, the Mclaren is still understeering unusually in the slower corners on both of the stints that Norris did. I did not look as well balanced as the MCL38 in last year's race, and the front end was worse in his race sims than I recall at any prior round this year.

[Sergej]

Marko said they have to fine tune a bit for quali pace

[f1isgood]

They were further away on Friday in Imola. Barcelona is a torture track for tires. Norris could have been simulating 2 stopper pace. He only did 4 laps and the first was with DRS on the main straight and he exceeded track limits at T11 on the penultimate lap of that short run, so definetely pushing. Considering the traffic situation of Max's 2nd stint, I would say that this was a very solid day.

Also, as I said elsewhere, the Mclaren is still understeering unusually in the slower corners on both of the stints that Norris did. I did not look as well balanced as the MCL38 in last year's race, and the front end was worse in his race sims than I recall at any prior round this year.

Not surprising. All that flexing had to help them with balance that Wache mentioned clearly. They just have loads of pace in the car that it doesn't look that interesting from a pace point of view. FIA should have grown a pair and done this last year itself when teams started to exploit it but they wanted a new winner and still funnily enough failed to get it lol.

[f1isgood]

Marko said they have to fine tune a bit for quali pace

Yeah, Max's lap seemed to be on the limit basically. We will see tomorrow.

[f1isgood]

On another note, I feel like the Imola upgrades might have made us a tad slower over a lap but given more race pace. I don't think the Miami version of RB21 would look any better than the Mercedes or the Ferrari in a hot Barcelona. Maybe I am wrong about this but so far all signs are positive in my view. Also, if this weekend goes well, my fear of rear-limited tracks will also probably go down even though Catalunya is front-limited. The reason being that Imola's choice of tires inherently made it more rear-limited than usual but we still managed tire temperatures quite well (we did overheat but it was good enough to win).

We will see however. Counting the eggs before they hatch and all

[AR3-GP]

On another note, I feel like the Imola upgrades might have made us a tad slower over a lap but given more race pace.

Wache said something to this effect after Imola.

[f1isgood]

On another note, I feel like the Imola upgrades might have made us a tad slower over a lap but given more race pace.

Wache said something to this effect after Imola.

Thanks, good to know that.

[Sergej]

Marko said they have to fine tune a bit for quali pace

Yeah, Max's lap seemed to be on the limit basically. We will see tomorrow.

hope they don't overdo it and destroy the race pace...

[AR3-GP]

EvH

Christian Horner (Red Bull) on the report in Bild that Ferrari had reached out to him.

“I am 100 percent committed to Red Bull. And my Italian is worse than Flavio Briatore's English so how is that supposed to work?”

[f1isgood]

Ferrari courted him already for the 2023 season which he turned down and confirmed to AMuS in his interview with them before the 2023 season. I am not surprised they would want him. Horner is a TP that has consistently delivered. After all that he had to go through (due to his own fault), he still stuck around and had decent enough leadership to keep the technical team to do something good and I think so far they have done an okay job.

[venkyhere]

FP2 comparison across the big hitter teams :

Quali sims fastest laps :
- Redbull & Mercedes hiding pace, with lower engine mode than Mclaren's lower engine mode
- RB21 is the class of the field through T9, T13, T14, next best being the W16.
- MCL39 is mega through T1-2, T4 and the T10-11-12 complex => class of the field, unbeatable in these corners.
- SF25 great through T5 "u-turn", but suffers like hell through the T7-T8 right angle left turn.

Long run on softs :
- Redbull seem to be running with lowest engine mode, Ferrari seem to be running with lowest fuel load.
- SF25 struggles with T10-11-12 direction switches compared to others, despite carrying least fuel.
- MCL39 still unbeatable through T4 but have met their match through T10-11-12 in RB21 (or is it because it is Norris instead of Piastri driving it)
- T9, T13, T14 advantage of RB21 continues, important to note that two of these are before DRS straights.

[CjC]

EvH

Christian Horner (Red Bull) on the report in Bild that Ferrari had reached out to him.

“I am 100 percent committed to Red Bull. And my Italian is worse than Flavio Briatore's English so how is that supposed to work?”

[Sergej]

Not sure Horner would be a good choice for Ferrari, too much politics from the high there, he couldn't shape the team as he wants.

[AR3-GP]

- MCL39 still unbeatable through T4 but have met their match through T10-11-12 in RB21

I don't think Red Bull is doing anything super in T10-T13 (or T5). It's just that Mclaren is now more understeery (and coming down to Red Bull's level) in those corners. It remains to be seen if Mclaren can get their strong front back with setup tweaks because then they will take a step in those corners. They suddenly have some very uncharacteristic understeer around the lap. It makes the MCL39 look human