Racing Bulls impresses while Red Bull struggles: Budapest proves VCARB 02 outperforms RB21. The 2025 Hungarian Grand Prix highlighted the growing gap between Red Bull’s RB21 and Racing Bulls’ VCARB 02.

With the Hungarian Grand Prix marking the official end of the first half of the 2025 Formula 1 World Championship season, it is now time for a thorough assessment of the teams’ performances. Our focus turns to Red Bull Racing and its so-called “little sister,” the Racing Bulls. The 14 races completed so far this season have clearly confirmed that—even though these two teams compete for very different objectives—the VCARB 02 is a significantly better racing car compared to the RB21, which is often pushed to its absolute limits only by Max Verstappen, the four-time Formula 1 World Champion.

The weekend at the Hungaroring represented a complete collapse for the Milton Keynes-based Red Bull team, culminating in a disappointing eighth-place qualifying position for the Dutch driver Max Verstappen and finishing the race in ninth place. These results sealed what can only be described as a disastrous three days for Red Bull.

From the very start, Max Verstappen, born in Hasselt, Belgium, complained about the lack of grip, repeatedly telling his race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase over the radio that it felt like “driving on ice.” Even the introduction of a new high-downforce aerodynamic specification failed to improve the situation. On the contrary, it ironically worsened the instability at the front of the car, forcing the engineers to abandon that setup immediately after Friday’s sessions.

If even Max Verstappen struggles…
There has been much discussion about how Red Bull has focused so intensely on developing the RB21 around Max Verstappen in an attempt to provide him with a highly competitive car. This focus has pushed the concept to an extreme, resulting in a car that has become complicated, if not nearly impossible, to drive at the limit. Sergio Perez is well aware of this challenge, Liam Lawson experienced similar difficulties over two races, and now Yuki Tsunoda is also suffering the consequences.

While Max Verstappen was able to keep the team afloat, Red Bull barely secured the 2024 Drivers’ Championship title and scored a handful of race wins in the current season. However, now that even the exceptional talent of a four-time World Champion is unable to fully control the RB21, it might be time to seriously reconsider this development approach. Meanwhile, just 1,500 kilometers away in Faenza, the Racing Bulls team is showing a very different story.

The key to helping the drivers
Liam Lawson’s eighth-place finish in Budapest was not only his second consecutive points finish after Spa-Francorchamps but also further proof of the strong quality and potential of the Racing Bulls’ VCARB 02 car. This car possesses two crucial characteristics—fundamental in modern Formula 1—that the RB21 currently lacks.

First, the VCARB 02 is a versatile car that adapts well to multiple driving styles and allows its drivers to build the confidence necessary to push the car to its limits. Just ask Isack Hadjar, who has made an extraordinary impact in his rookie season in the Formula 1 World Championship and will surely attribute part of his success to the quality of his racing machinery.

Second, the Italian-built Racing Bulls car enjoys a much wider operating window compared to the Red Bull RB21. This broader performance envelope enables the team to quickly find the right setup balance and fine-tune the car more effectively. Both Liam Lawson and Yuki Tsunoda have experienced this firsthand. Since the driver swap following the Chinese Grand Prix, Lawson has regained the crucial feeling with his car, allowing him to extract maximum performance, while Tsunoda has struggled to maintain that essential connection.