2024 Oracle Red Bull Racing F1 Team

[Emag]

I don't think McLaren will continue to enjoy this sort of gap on other tracks, but I also think they will remain competitive just on the basis of how they have been performing since Miami. There hasn't really been any track type where McLaren hasn't at least been in contention for the win, if not outright the quickest.

I don't think a fair comparison with 2023 can be made. The 2023 car had inherent mechanical weaknesses which were quite severe. Those weaknesses were somehow balanced out by the car being "overpowered" on high-speed corners. The car this year is much more balanced, and although they have lost the high-speed lead, they're pretty much top of the class on most other corner types. Last year, the Monza low DF package was somewhat rushed and they didn't even have a proper low DF setup for Spa ready to better optimize a low DF setup. Not to mention the inherent drag problem the 2023 car had.

This year, with a relatively low DF configuration at Spa, they did rather well.

Remains to be seen how they will perform on an even lower DF configuration, but I doubt the deficit will be as big as it was last year. Besides, even last year, the car was half-decent considering the limitations. It's just that their straight line speed was so poor, they were stuck behind Albon the whole race.

[Sergej]

[organic]

So more than 4 tenths per lap lost due to incorrect specifications for max. Not horrendous to have a 20s gap in 50 laps then

[Xyz22]

Something is really off here.

Verstappen is racing with a launch spec floor. What do you expect?

This car was on rails in China. Now it's very difficult to drive.

[AR3-GP]

Something is really off here.

Verstappen is racing with a launch spec floor. What do you expect?

This car was on rails in China. Now it's very difficult to drive.

The car is not difficult to drive with the older floors, Look at Perez. His performance recovered almost overnight relative to Ferrari, and Mercedes. He was only 5 seconds behind Piastri in the 1st stint. With the previous package he was fighting with Haas.

The "difficulty" that is perceived now by Max is what happens when you try to push a car faster than it's capable of going. This makes sense considering they downgraded the floor to a launch spec and he's trying to keep up with a MKIII Mclaren.

[Xyz22]

Verstappen is racing with a launch spec floor. What do you expect?

This car was on rails in China. Now it's very difficult to drive.

The car is not difficult to drive with the older floors, Look at Perez. His performance recovered almost overnight relative to Ferrari, and Mercedes. He was only 5 seconds behind Piastri in the 1st stint. With the previous package he was fighting with Haas.

The "difficulty" that is perceived now by Max is what happens when you try to push a car faster than it's capable of going. This makes sense considering they downgraded the floor to a launch spec and he's trying to keep up with a MKIII Mclaren.

Max wasn't happy about the balance either, though. So it seems there is more than just a mere lack of overall performance.

[FittingMechanics]

Comparing McLaren of last year to today makes no sense. They brought a proper high speed package this year and Zak said today that they are bringing some more bits to Monza.

Oscar said he feels confident they will be decent at all types of tracks.

I wouldn't bet against McLaren.

[AR3-GP]

Max wasn't happy about the balance either, though. So it seems there is more than just a mere lack of overall performance.

The car has always leaned towards understeer since 2022. Max can be unhappy with the balance, but the car can still be "fast". It's just not good enough to fight Mclaren. They beat Ferrari and Mercedes with a launch spec floor, a "bad" balance, and the wrong wings, so it isn't all wrong.

[PlatinumZealot]

McLaren is mostly benefiting from copying RedBull so a cheaper RnD investment which is then compounded by the additional wind tunnel time. They are sling shotting off the regulations basically, and will carry that into 2025.

[AR3-GP]

McLaren is mostly benefiting from copying RedBull so a cheaper RnD investment which is then compounded by the additional wind tunnel time. They are sling shotting off the regulations basically, and will carry that into 2025.

I agree. The regulations intended for it to happen. It cheapens the championship but it is what it is. One may note that none of the backmarker teams have slingshotted upwards but the backmarkers are institutionally deficient. They can't be compared to the capacity of the leading teams. If you give teams like Mclaren, Red Bull, and Mercedes extra windtunnel hours over their rivals, they are going to close that gap quickly.

For people who don't think that the windtunnel and CFD time is significant, petition the FIA to give Red Bull more windtunnel time since it "doesn't matter". I doubt there will be any takers on that

[AR3-GP]

So more than 4 tenths per lap lost due to incorrect specifications for max. Not horrendous to have a 20s gap in 50 laps then

Dr Obbs said that the Bahrain spec floor only got put on Max's car from FP3 onwards. Considering that FP3 was wet, lol. He did 1 lap in FP3 on the intermediates. This was like going into qualy with no prep work. Perhaps things are not so dire after all. I think a lot of the gap could be explained by Mclaren having a completed car that works, and Red Bull currently looks like a team inthe middle of pre-season testing. To qualify 2nd and finish 2nd is not bad at all. They are basically in a full-fledged test session.



Most of the remaining tracks on the calendar should not have rain disruptions and they will have much more time evaluate changes.

I take back my previous reservations. They were not made with consideration for the full picture.

[Paa]

So more than 4 tenths per lap lost due to incorrect specifications for max. Not horrendous to have a 20s gap in 50 laps then

Dr Obbs said that the Bahrain spec floor only got put on Max's car from FP3 onwards. Considering that FP3 was wet, lol. He did 1 lap in FP3 on the intermediates. This was like going into qualy with no prep work. Perhaps things are not so dire after all. I think a lot of the gap could be explained by Mclaren having a completed car that works, and Red Bull currently looks like a team inthe middle of pre-season testing. To qualify 2nd and finish 2nd is not bad at all. They are basically in a full-fledged test session.



Most of the remaining tracks on the calendar should not have rain disruptions and they will have much more time evaluate changes.

I take back my previous reservations. They were not made with consideration for the full picture.

On one hand you can say that the result is not so bad considering the circumstances. (glass half full)
On the other hand these circumstances show that Red Bull is lost and desperate at the moment. Putting the launch spec floor on wet FP3 at the 15th race of the season, sounds super miserable. (glass half empty)

[organic]

Yeah but it no doubt will provide them more data that can conclude where and how they went wrong and arrive at a solution more quickly. They are experimenting and used zandvoort as a test session and still only lost 8pts to Norris in WDC. Could be a lot worse.

[AR3-GP]

Verstappen manages to have a very low laptime spread compared to the others.

[organic]

No doubt running what was essentially his own race for the entire GP helped