2025 Oracle Red Bull Racing F1 Team

[AR3-GP]

Dr. Hopium speaks

Asked whether he felt there was a chance Verstappen might leave if he didn't have a car capable of fighting for the title, with the suggestion that he might be leading the championship in either the McLaren, Mercedes or Ferrari, Marko said: "You're definitely right, so we have to make sure that he gets a car where he can win.

"And there was a very constructive meeting last Thursday - Max with the engineers - and they discussed how to go forwards, to improve the car, and make it more driveable, to have a wider range of driveability. And all that went very positive.

"So it's just two races, we are eight points behind, and as I said before, the whole team is focused to achieve this fifth title, which we didn't make with [Sebastian] Vettel, but this time I think there is a possibility."

https://www.the-race.com/formula-1/what ... -comments/

[organic]

My expectation is that if the car isn't competing for wins each weekend by the summer Max will be out. So the first two packages are critical

Max won't move before 2027.

Why not? Wherever he goes, his contract will have significant performance clauses to escape if the engine regs don't go correctly for his new team..

Dr. Hopium speaks

Asked whether he felt there was a chance Verstappen might leave if he didn't have a car capable of fighting for the title, with the suggestion that he might be leading the championship in either the McLaren, Mercedes or Ferrari, Marko said: "You're definitely right, so we have to make sure that he gets a car where he can win.

"And there was a very constructive meeting last Thursday - Max with the engineers - and they discussed how to go forwards, to improve the car, and make it more driveable, to have a wider range of driveability. And all that went very positive.

"So it's just two races, we are eight points behind, and as I said before, the whole team is focused to achieve this fifth title, which we didn't make with [Sebastian] Vettel, but this time I think there is a possibility."

https://www.the-race.com/formula-1/what ... -comments/

To the telegraaf he was a lot less positive (more realistic?)

Helmut Marko: "It's impossible to turn around a difficult car like the RB21 very quickly. But yesterday, Max had a very positive meeting with the engineers. We still have confidence. But realistically, the next three races will still be very difficult for us."

So they think that they can fight for a title but things won't improve much before some unknown time beyond round 5. We're approaching a full season of damage control that Max has had to do now

*It's worth noting that Marko didn't actually attend the meeting on Thursday, by the way. So it's amusing he's still commenting on it

[CHT]

If I am Max i would prefer to keep Lawson as teammate because his struggle will mean i deserve a bigger pay cheque.

[ispano6]

So what do we know about Tsunoda's driving style compared to Verstappen's? I have read that Lawson's driving style is aggressive, involving late braking and pushing the car to understeer through corners. That's the opposite of Verstappen's driving style.

.
It's the same. Yuki loooves a pointy car and het studied Max his drivingstyle since the F3 when Max drove F1.
He tested the RB20 in Abu Dhabi last year December and he loved it. The car did exactly what he wanted he said, which the VCARB didn't, that wasn't a pointy car.

I'm amazed that they still gave the seat to Lawson, although they knew he has a different driving style than Max.

Yuki prefers pointy cars, as did Albon, but as Albon said, Max is on a whole other level when it comes to pointy cars. Hope Yuki will gets results.

Yuki's drive in the simulator back in November showed he was close to Max, though in his actual test run at Abu Dhabi wasn't as fast as Hadjar but also wasn't Hadjar's first taste of RBR machinery. He recently had 3 simulator runs after China for RBR to evaluate which proved enough to them to move forward with the swap. Let's all hope Yuki can put it together in quali but also to ease into the RB21 and get to know it without trying to rush things or damage the car in an early session. For the race he needs to steer clear of trouble, especially Lawson.

[Jurgen von Diaz]

.
It's the same. Yuki loooves a pointy car and het studied Max his drivingstyle since the F3 when Max drove F1.
He tested the RB20 in Abu Dhabi last year December and he loved it. The car did exactly what he wanted he said, which the VCARB didn't, that wasn't a pointy car.

I'm amazed that they still gave the seat to Lawson, although they knew he has a different driving style than Max.

Yuki prefers pointy cars, as did Albon, but as Albon said, Max is on a whole other level when it comes to pointy cars. Hope Yuki will gets results.

Yuki's drive in the simulator back in November showed he was close to Max, though in his actual test run at Abu Dhabi wasn't as fast as Hadjar but also wasn't Hadjar's first taste of RBR machinery. He recently had 3 simulator runs after China for RBR to evaluate which proved enough to them to move forward with the swap. Let's all hope Yuki can put it together in quali but also to ease into the RB21 and get to know it without trying to rush things or damage the car in an early session. For the race he needs to steer clear of trouble, especially Lawson.

I'm not sure anymore whether we can trust the tests or simulators. Lawson was 0.2 seconds from Verstappen's pace at the private tests. Ricciardo was nearly at Verstappen's pace at the private tests. Still, they didn't carry it on race weekends.

[AR3-GP]

Yuki's drive in the simulator back in November showed he was close to Max,

This is not to suggest that Tsunoda won't be close to Max but isn't Red Bull's problem last year specifically that the simulator car didn't match the real thing? If they were using RB20 simulator sessions to decide on drivers, they're in more trouble than I thought

[Zynerji]

Dude. Me personally, you have the wrong idea if you think that I don’t want Verstappen. It don’t really matter to me because Mercedes results and victories is what I care about, but I guess I’m in defense for Russell which is not the case. Huge misunderstanding.

This is about Max, and I’m being very realistic about his intentions, if you look at it from a different perspective, Aston Martin is the much better fit for him even if Toto (Which he probably won’t now) gets him. But that’s if Max doesn’t to stay in F1, Aston Martin has a WEC program for LeMans endurance.

Which I don’t know how any of you are not getting.

Max going to another team would be to win in F1, not for WEC or anything else really. Merc with their winning pedigree and engine program presents a far better alternative than Aston who have shown nothing except a proclivity to throw money at big names. And Honda was late to join the regs, I doubt they are on the same page as Merc in the engine development. My final prediction is that he stays at RB if things go fairly well this year and their 2026 engine shows decent promise, all else he leaves for Merc.

To be fair to Aston, Mercedes was once Brawn, which was once Earth Dreams Honda, which was crap.
So if Aston has the right resources, there is no reason why they cannot make the step up to be the next Brawn or Mercedes. 2023 showed they have the talent to produce a fast car, but did not have the organization to continuously develop. With Newey and Cowell, I do not think that team is going to stand still.

Agreed. With a Mediocre Stroll and a Retirement Alonso in what is probably the Golden 2027 seats, we could see everyone fighting to get into the AMR-H seats!!

[euv2]

https://x.com/dr_obbs/status/1905748331189633421

Next big update coming at Imola according to Dr.Obbs.

[organic]

https://x.com/dr_obbs/status/1905748331189633421

Next big update coming at Imola according to Dr.Obbs.

Thanks! So the team pushed back the upgrade package.

[Paa]

https://x.com/dr_obbs/status/1905748331189633421

Next big update coming at Imola according to Dr.Obbs.

Timing makes sense as they obviously missed the triple-header we are going into next week. Then after that we have Miami (Race 6), but that's a sprint. So they can get 2 more weeks until Imola, which is also the first phase of an other triple-header and not a sprint format.
More interestingly the last race of this latter triple-header will be Spain with the TD.
So just 2 weeks after introducing the upgrade we'll see how it works in a post TD era. Then I guess we can draw a fairly strong conclusion about what to expect from the season/future.

[ispano6]

Yuki's drive in the simulator back in November showed he was close to Max,

This is not to suggest that Tsunoda won't be close to Max but isn't Red Bull's problem last year specifically that the simulator car didn't match the real thing? If they were using RB20 simulator sessions to decide on drivers, they're in more trouble than I thought

It was most likely to get him used to the RB20 simulated characteristics prior to actually driving the RB20 during the post-season "test". Probably also to see what kind of feedback he would give regarding how the two correlated.

The way I see it, Max does find the simulator to be a useful tool to train with, and he's said aside from the G-forces, the SIM is a good measure of reaction and intuition without having feedback in feeling. Yuki is known to be a gamer, who is quite good at first person shooters that require precision with the mouse and controls, which is interesting since Albon equated Max's ability to handle the RBR's steering like an ultra sensitive mouse. Maybe Yuki, with his shorter stature gives him slightly faster reaction times, and high DPI steering, or as with the case with Ayrton Senna, extremely precise micro-steering.

[ringo]

I sense some discomfort from Max. He disagrees with Yuki joining. The team of course care about the constructors more. They cannot have one car being 20th and the other comfortably fighting for wins. It only serves to help Max and his ego. They probabaly realized that it's important to have feedback from two good drivers to make the car more usable.
Max has pretty much honed a weapon for his hands only over the years; which again only serves his desire to win and not the broader team.
2025 is going to get very interesting. Yuki has been confirmed for the 2nd Redbull for all of 2025. He's not trying out to be sent back to VCARB. I hope he doesn't focus on attacking Max. His focus should just be on improving himself. If he is faster then so be it, but he should not be dicing on track or venting about getting a bad strategy as he usually does.

[TeamKoolGreen]

If I am Max i would prefer to keep Lawson as teammate because his struggle will mean i deserve a bigger pay cheque.

Perez couldn't drive it. Lawson couldn't drive it. Max can barely string 3 purple sectors together in qualifying.

But Yuki Tsunoda is going to have no problem with it ?

Helmut Marko: " But realistically, the next three races will still be very difficult for us."

[TeamKoolGreen]

I sense some discomfort from Max. He disagrees with Yuki joining. The team of course care about the constructors more. They cannot have one car being 20th and the other comfortably fighting for wins. It only serves to help Max and his ego. They probabaly realized that it's important to have feedback from two good drivers to make the car more usable.
Max has pretty much honed a weapon for his hands only over the years; which again only serves his desire to win and not the broader team.
2025 is going to get very interesting. Yuki has been confirmed for the 2nd Redbull for all of 2025. He's not trying out to be sent back to VCARB. I hope he doesn't focus on attacking Max. His focus should just be on improving himself. If he is faster then so be it, but he should not be dicing on track or venting about getting a bad strategy as he usually does.

There's a lot of wish casting going about Yuki in this thread. Max said that because he doesn't think the Yuki experiment will go any better than the 2024 Perez experiment or the Lawson experiment. He's not worried about being attacked by Yuki.

But hey , let's paint the cars white and make it all up on vibes. To be fair , Perez did get 2nd in the Red Bull at this track last year. So maybe there is hope

[TeamKoolGreen]

All of this nonsense about Toto dropping Russell in a split second to get Max. It makes no sense because Kimi is not #2 material either. So Toto would have to drop 2 Mercedes program drivers to hire Max. Max at this point in his career , will have true #2 driver as teammate in his contract. Just like Micheal Schumacher did. So Toto would have to loan out Kimi and hire a true #2.

Plus all of this talk about Toto backing up the money truck for Max. Toto low balled hamilton on his last deal. He's under paying Russell right now. The minute his friend and co owners chemical company started struggling , the Ineos decal is suddenly missing from the air box. Toto talks big about money and yet he's the biggest nickel and dimer out there