This year again, the midfield battle is proving exciting and hard-fought, with several teams vying for the title of midfield queen and, more specifically, fifth place in the Constructors’ Championship, which brings significant prize money at the end of the season.
At the moment, fifth place belongs to Williams, extremely effective on fast circuits and on a growth trajectory rooted in the behind-the-scenes work of the past two years. However, the midfield battle offers other angles worth exploring, which can be summed up in one question: what has been the “surprise” team at the start of the 2025 season?
Without a doubt, Williams is one of the strongest candidates, but there is another team that, while not shining in the standings due to missed opportunities, has actually delivered excellent performances – even beyond its own expectations: Racing Bulls.
At the beginning of the championship, Racing Bulls and Williams often contested the title of midfield leader. Looking at the standings, however, the comparison seems one-sided: 25 points for the British team, just 8 for the Faenza-based outfit. But the numbers don’t tell the whole story. To truly understand why Racing Bulls is the surprise of the early season, we need to take a few steps back.
Racing Bulls and Williams followed opposite paths
After Alpine, Williams is the team that has made the most noticeable progress compared to the first five races of last year. At the time, however, both had paid dearly for delays in their winter preparations, hitting the track with overweight cars. The need to reduce weight, combined with numerous crashes during the season, made Williams look further behind than it actually was.
However, the winter break allowed the team to catch up and begin benefiting from the groundwork laid in previous months, when a solid base had already been built to develop further. It’s no coincidence that Team Principal James Vowles often pointed out how 2024 should have yielded more, but crashes and missed opportunities weighed on the FW46’s score despite its potential.
Williams’ path was diametrically opposed to that of Racing Bulls, which began 2024 with one of the most competitive midfield cars. The Faenza team was able to capitalize immediately on the car’s potential, scoring key points and notable results – like Daniel Ricciardo’s fourth place in the Miami sprint.
However, the upgrade package introduced in Barcelona failed to deliver the expected results, leading the team to take a step back and enter a months-long negative spiral in pursuit of more aerodynamic load. Racing Bulls itself admitted it only managed to get back on track towards the end of last year, by which point rivals had already made significant development gains.
For the VCARB02, then, the goal wasn’t only to increase downforce but also to close the performance gap built up during the second half of last season. Yet the 2025 winter tests in Bahrain raised several doubts about the car’s real potential. It’s no surprise that ahead of the Australian GP, the team was transparent, admitting it wasn’t yet where it wanted to be.
The VCARB02 surprised even the team itself
Those expectations were completely overturned just hours later, when the VCARB02 proved to be the most competitive midfield car, despite ending the race pointless. With a more effective strategy, Yuki Tsunoda could have finished as high as fourth, or at least within the top five.
“In Melbourne, the car was well balanced. We didn’t encounter any issues. The drivers felt comfortable and could push. And as often happens in those situations, the lap time comes,” explained Team Principal Laurent Mekies ahead of the second race of the season, in Shanghai, where the team expected to face more difficulties in the high-speed corners – a known weakness of the 2024 car, which instead excelled in slow sections.
Once again, however, the track told a different story: in both Chinese qualifying sessions, the VCARB02 confirmed itself as the strongest car in the midfield. Yet, as in Melbourne, the team failed to convert that potential into points due to another strategic error that compromised their top-10 finish.
Encouraging signs came again at Suzuka and Jeddah: in Japan, the team secured its best result of the season with a brilliant eighth place by Isack Hadjar. In Saudi Arabia, however, Hadjar couldn’t attack due to Williams’ clever use of DRS teamwork to defend, even though the VCARB02 had superior race pace on paper.
The only underwhelming race was in Bahrain – the same track that had already raised doubts during testing. Still, two clear conclusions emerged from the early part of the season: the VCARB02 has made a step forward in fast corners, improving both downforce and stability, which had been major weaknesses in 2024.
Moreover, the car benefits from a wide operating window, allowing drivers and engineers to more easily find an effective setup – precisely one of the goals engineers had set for the winter.
This results in a more linear weekend workload, in sharp contrast with the difficulties often faced by Red Bull. In this respect, Racing Bulls seems to have learned from its mistakes last season, abandoning the pursuit of extreme solutions in favor of a more balanced and adaptable platform.
The season’s start has highlighted the qualities of the VCARB02, even if its potential has yet to translate into Constructors’ points – especially on weekends when there were real opportunities to bring home a solid haul.
In fact, the standings are misleading and don’t reflect the car’s true value. Its performance tells a very different story – one of clear technical progress and renewed solidity that has allowed the team to consistently fight for a leading role in the midfield, while waiting for upgrades planned for the European rounds.
In the meantime, Yuki Tsunoda’s departure to Red Bull leaves a significant gap, having taken away a fast driver with four seasons of experience, who could also have played a key role in guiding the team in terms of development. But the midfield fight is far from over, and Racing Bulls seems determined to confirm itself as one of the most interesting surprises of 2025.
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