At the livery presentation in London, one team stood out for the beauty of its new color scheme: Racing Bulls. Its mix of white, blue, yellow, and red convinced many fans, and indeed, during the first filming day in Imola, the VCARB02 earned positive feedback.
However, the new car is much more than just a beautiful design, and with the VCARB02, the Faenza-based team hopes to at least return to the competitiveness seen in early 2024, when it often succeeded in establishing itself as the reference for the midfield thanks to a fast but flexible car.
However, after a great start that saw it earn the sixth place in the standings, the Italian team lost its way, especially when updates arrived in Barcelona. The Spanish package was supposed to be the evolution of the one brought to Miami, which had actually yielded great results, with a fourth-place finish in the sprint race in the US.
Once they hit the track with the latest updates, though, Racing Bulls noticed that the results were not as expected. By the next round in Austria, the team reverted to a hybrid specification using parts that had already been tested. Similarly, the floor brought to Monza, designed to improve performance in slower corners, did not immediately give the drivers the expected feedback and needed time to be optimized.
The underlying issue is that the Faenza team only found its way back to the right path toward the end of the season. Although the more challenging period allowed them to learn a lot for the future, understanding the best path to take, it also forced Racing Bulls to fall behind in development compared to competitors like Haas.
The VCARB02 is not drastically different from its predecessor but has introduced updates in key areas, such as the radiator intake areas, with the addition of a vertical intake and a switch to a solution with an extended upper lip. The impression that several parts resemble the VCARB01 is not wrong because, as has been the case for some years now, Racing Bulls introduces some of the future innovations toward the end of the previous season to gather valuable data.
“It is a strong aerodynamic evolution and a less drastic mechanical evolution. We introduced many of these parts toward the end of last season on the 2024 car, which is a strategy we’ve used in the past, introducing mechanical updates at the end of the season and then bringing these parts back,” said Technical Director Jody Egginton.
In fact, the RB20 mechanics, which share several elements with the VCARB02 as allowed by the regulations, were introduced last year after the summer break, serving as preparation for 2025. The changes were mostly aerodynamic, as explained by the technical director, with a goal partially shared with Red Bull itself: to make the new car easier and faster.
Despite the great start, the VCARB01 showed several limitations in terms of adaptability last year, due to both intrinsic limitations of the design and difficulties faced by Racing Bulls in developing the project. Moreover, given how compact the grid was, this led to performance swings that the team hopes to have improved with the new project.
“It’s fair to say that the car [VCARB01] didn’t perform with the consistency we would have liked, and this is certainly something we kept an eye on and tried to address with this year’s car,” explained Egginton, highlighting the development goals for the new VCARB02, which were not only to improve performance but also to make it easier to understand for the drivers and the technical team.
“In addition to achieving pure aerodynamic downforce goals, the aerodynamic operating window plays an important role. We want a car that has as wide an operating window as possible. It makes it easier for both the drivers and engineers to set up the car.”
Compared to twelve months ago, the team’s technical focus has shifted, based on the lessons learned from last year. The team didn’t aim to exaggerate pure downforce, an approach that hampered the development process in 2024, but rather to establish a solid understanding of the car.
“Our focus has shifted from a year ago, based on the lessons learned last year, especially in the final third of the season. We’ve worked on understanding the car. We want to have a deep understanding of the car across a range of circuits and conditions as early as possible.”
“It’s important to build an image and develop the car based on that,” added the technical director, emphasizing how the winter break helped provide a clearer idea of the work done toward the end of last season, which now forms the base of the VCARB02.
“However, during the season, the strengths and weaknesses evolve. You might succeed in one area and then have to shift your focus to another. It’s a moving target. Our initial development work during the 2024 season was reasonable, the updates introduced mid-season less so.”
“Further developments toward the end of the year gave good results, but we didn’t understand all their nuances until the end of the year. Now, over the winter, we’ve understood them better from an aerodynamic perspective. This means we’ll make much better use of the concepts we brought to the car toward the end of 2024.”
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