The interruptions caused by red flags and traffic denied Red Bull the chance to gather the reference times it wanted on the Soft tyre and during the long runs. However, Helmut Marko believes the RB21 is currently strong enough to be considered at least a top-three car. Meanwhile, the team continues its technical experiments, with Max Verstappen choosing to remain on the older floor specification while Yuki Tsunoda runs the latest version.
Looking at the timesheets, Red Bull does not appear among the leading cars, despite the team’s aerodynamic efficiency suggesting it should be a major threat on the long straights of Las Vegas. The two interruptions caused by a loose manhole cover prevented Max Verstappen from completing a push lap on the softest compound, forcing him to rely solely on a time set on the Medium tyre.
During his first flying lap, the Dutchman encountered traffic and immediately aborted the run to avoid overheating the tyres. On the second attempt he was stopped by the red flag, unable to complete even the first sector.
What stands out clearly is that the Soft tyre appears to offer a significant performance step compared to the Medium, but without a proper push lap it is difficult to evaluate the true potential of the Milton Keynes car. The only meaningful reference remains the Medium-tyre run that placed Max in fourth position, but even that comparison cannot be considered fully reliable.
For example, when analysing the laps on the Mediums, Lando Norris benefited from a strong slipstream but was still not running his power unit at maximum performance, just as many of the other drivers. On paper, McLaren should struggle more than its rivals in terms of top speed, a consequence of its aerodynamic efficiency limitations when running low downforce. All teams, including Red Bull, opted for very low-downforce setups, using wings similar to what they brought to Monza.
However, after an FP2 session that was extremely difficult to interpret and heavily affected by interruptions, Max Verstappen stressed that winning at other low-downforce circuits does not guarantee the same outcome in Las Vegas. Here, the lack of grip plays a much larger role than at other similar tracks, mainly due to the very smooth asphalt and cold temperatures.
That said, on paper this track could still suit several strengths of the RB21, and despite the limited data available, there is optimism in the Anglo-Austrian garage. Early indications suggest the car is immediately more competitive and less troubled than it was at the previous two rounds. In Mexico and Brazil Red Bull lost its direction and only recovered during the race.
In Las Vegas, the situation appears different, and the setup changes introduced between FP1 and FP2 led to improvements, even though it was impossible to judge their effectiveness during long-run simulations due to the two red flags. Helmut Marko stated after the session that the changes made after FP1 made the car more competitive, but the actual scale of progress remains uncertain, especially over long distances.
According to Marko, however, the RB21 currently has enough pace to target at least a top-three position, even as the team awaits clearer data to understand how the setup changes are influencing performance: “I think at the moment we are a top-three team, but we don’t know about the long runs,” Marko said. Red Bull followed a dual approach during practice. On one hand, the team focused on finding the right operating window for the tyres — a key factor on a track with such low grip, where every fraction of mechanical grip makes a difference. On the other hand, the engineers worked on setup experimentation, once again evaluating two different solutions.
Already in Brazil, after the difficulties encountered on Friday, the Milton Keynes engineers had chosen to backtrack on Verstappen’s car, discarding the floor introduced in Mexico and returning to the Monza specification. On Tsunoda’s car, however, the newest evolution remained in place to collect further data.
This comparative work continued in Las Vegas, with the team confirming that this is a deliberate strategy tailored to the needs of each driver and one that could continue for the rest of the season. Essentially, Max feels more comfortable with the Monza-spec floor and without the latest upgrades, and he may continue this way for the remainder of the championship.
It is no secret that Red Bull operates with a narrow performance window and that, in an effort to generate more downforce, the team is attempting to run the car extremely low to the ground. In Las Vegas the RB21 produced visible sparks from the floor, a clear sign of how aggressively the engineers are trying to keep the car as low as possible despite the bumps typical of a street circuit.
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