2023 Oracle Red Bull Racing F1 Team

[Rikhart]

With RBR Honda co-incidentally winning the championship at the home of their powerunit supplier.. for a second I wondered if this was the real "problem" last week. Just a matter of timing?

No, that would not explain the woeful handling the car suffered from.

[organic]

With RBR Honda co-incidentally winning the championship at the home of their powerunit supplier.. for a second I wondered if this was the real "problem" last week. Just a matter of timing?

I believe at Singapore in order to win the WCC RB would need some unlikely scenarios, even with their absolute best performance and with both drivers performing optimally. It would've been in the hands of mercedes to score 0 or 1 point.

So this theory does not hold up at all

[Juzh]

In regards to total race deficit you can't really take it at face value. Verstappen was cruising for entire last stint, lifting trough 130r for no reason, coasting into braking zones, leaving meters of track on exits, etc... Even his fastest lap wasn't done on any special engine mode, he just pushed a little harder, but still not really going all out.

A truly frightening performance today, so much in reserve. I suspect they could have lapped everyone if they wanted to.

That's pushing it, but 30s to macca is reasonable. As I wrote in mclaren thread now, Ver did start to drive normally after about 5-7 laps, so he was probably cooling down tyres for a few laps after that 34.1.

[AR3-GP]

In regards to total race deficit you can't really take it at face value. Verstappen was cruising for entire last stint, lifting trough 130r for no reason, coasting into braking zones, leaving meters of track on exits, etc... Even his fastest lap wasn't done on any special engine mode, he just pushed a little harder, but still not really going all out.

A truly frightening performance today, so much in reserve. I suspect they could have lapped everyone if they wanted to.

That's pushing it, but 30s to macca is reasonable. As I wrote in mclaren thread now, Ver did start to drive normally after about 5-7 laps, so he was probably cooling down tyres for a few laps after that 34.1.

I think he was driving quite strangely all race. At the beginning laps, he was doing massive lift off on the back straight:




He was even lifting in the esses earlier than Leclerc, while lapping 1 second faster. It's also apparent that once again the PU deployment is turned way down within the limitations of the regs. Compared to qualifying, he's dropping the time on all of the straights to Leclerc and Norris who don't really have slip streams.

They could still win races in next year's championship.

[chrisc90]

Be interesting to know how much was in reserve, especially when he's doing the lifting and coast to those extremes.

Even if others make a jump next season, that RB car has plenty in reserve.

[Cs98]

I think he was driving quite strangely all race. At the beginning laps, he was doing massive lift off on the back straight:

He was even lifting in the esses earlier than Leclerc, while lapping 1 second faster. It's also apparent that once again the PU deployment is turned way down within the limitations of the regs. Compared to qualifying, he's dropping the time on all of the straights to Leclerc and Norris who don't really have slip streams.

They could still win races in next year's championship.

That's not PU mode. That's Leclerc being 1 second behind Piastri and getting a big tow. Later in the race when both were running in free air the RB was faster on the straights. The McLaren had good top speed in quali too, but it was very even in the race when both were in free air.

He did have a lift through 130R for large parts of the race. Not sure if that's tyre management or plank wear. The car didn't sound like it was bottoming much.

[avantman]

I think he was driving quite strangely all race. At the beginning laps, he was doing massive lift off on the back straight:

He was even lifting in the esses earlier than Leclerc, while lapping 1 second faster. It's also apparent that once again the PU deployment is turned way down within the limitations of the regs. Compared to qualifying, he's dropping the time on all of the straights to Leclerc and Norris who don't really have slip streams.

They could still win races in next year's championship.

That's not PU mode. That's Leclerc being 1 second behind Piastri and getting a big tow. Later in the race when both were running in free air the RB was faster on the straights. The McLaren had good top speed in quali too, but it was very even in the race when both were in free air.

He did have a lift through 130R for large parts of the race. Not sure if that's tyre management or plank wear. The car didn't sound like it was bottoming much.

Great catch! One thing I know for sure - it was anything but sandbagging.

[Sieper]

Be interesting to know how much was in reserve, especially when he's doing the lifting and coast to those extremes.

Even if others make a jump next season, that RB car has plenty in reserve.

I don’t believe the margins are that big. Checo more often than not is having a very hard time, if they get the set-up wrong (Brazil and Austria last year, Singapore this year) they are way off.

This year they could take a lot of weight out of the car, what can they do next year? The rest is learning what works.

[Juzh]

It must be tyres, 130r is a smooth corner so plank is not a problem there.

[avantman]

I think he was driving quite strangely all race. At the beginning laps, he was doing massive lift off on the back straight:

He was even lifting in the esses earlier than Leclerc, while lapping 1 second faster. It's also apparent that once again the PU deployment is turned way down within the limitations of the regs. Compared to qualifying, he's dropping the time on all of the straights to Leclerc and Norris who don't really have slip streams.

They could still win races in next year's championship.

That's not PU mode. That's Leclerc being 1 second behind Piastri and getting a big tow. Later in the race when both were running in free air the RB was faster on the straights. The McLaren had good top speed in quali too, but it was very even in the race when both were in free air.

He did have a lift through 130R for large parts of the race. Not sure if that's tyre management or plank wear. The car didn't sound like it was bottoming much.

Great catch! One thing I know for sure - it was anything but sandbagging. He'd only do that for better performance over the whole race and faster race time. Could be tire+fuel management, could be plank wear indeed. Very similar to him lifting off at Eau Rouge all race this year.
Max was pushing. He had a bet with GP he would win with 20+ sec advantage over P2. They talked about that on the radio and Max has said to him indeed he was pushing.
The guys who always talk in a way like Max could've lapped the entire field every time, you are just laughable, if not pathetic actually, in your poor attempts to diminish his level of performance, attributing that kind of advantage merely to this car.

[Cs98]

It must be tyres, 130r is a smooth corner so plank is not a problem there.

I do recall GP saying to Max he's "fuel free" at a later point in the race, suggesting he was underfueled. 130R seems like an efficient place to save a bit of fuel and manage the tyres at the same time.

[AR3-GP]

I think he was driving quite strangely all race. At the beginning laps, he was doing massive lift off on the back straight:

He was even lifting in the esses earlier than Leclerc, while lapping 1 second faster. It's also apparent that once again the PU deployment is turned way down within the limitations of the regs. Compared to qualifying, he's dropping the time on all of the straights to Leclerc and Norris who don't really have slip streams.

They could still win races in next year's championship.

That's not PU mode. That's Leclerc being 1 second behind Piastri and getting a big tow. Later in the race when both were running in free air the RB was faster on the straights. The McLaren had good top speed in quali too, but it was very even in the race when both were in free air.

A good point. Not my most analytical moment. I checked the mclaren website and it's true that Leclerc was right behind Piastri.

[shingles]

It must be tyres, 130r is a smooth corner so plank is not a problem there.

I do recall GP saying to Max he's "fuel free" at a later point in the race, suggesting he was underfueled. 130R seems like an efficient place to save a bit of fuel and manage the tyres at the same time.

I am pretty sure I heard GP say to Max that the lift and coast is for tire and not fuel specifically.

[Sieper]

I think I heard “fuel” too in one of GP’s messages in the international stream.

[AR3-GP]

I wonder how they decide how much fuel to put.