Red Bull works on two fronts to shave off precious hundredths from the gap separating them from the front. In Jeddah, a wider engine cover makes its debut—Red Bull’s third version since the start of the year—and will prove useful in races where cooling is more critical. Beneath the surface, both RB21s are fitted with a new power unit, already being used aggressively during free practice to better prepare for the weekend. The Milton Keynes team aims to optimize the balance between reliability, aerodynamic performance, and available engine power.
Updates in Jeddah
In Saudi Arabia, Red Bull introduces a new single-element beam wing, but what draws the most attention is the new engine cover. The rear outlet is widened to help extract more hot air from the engine bay and radiators. The team describes this upgrade as a response to the high temperatures expected in Saudi Arabia—an explanation that raises some doubts. In fact, Jeddah’s environmental conditions are similar to Bahrain’s, and the track—being one of the fastest on the calendar with an average speed of 250 km/h—naturally aids cooling. Indeed, after using the new cover in the first free practice session, Red Bull reverted to the previous spec by Friday evening, suggesting that the new design may actually be intended for upcoming races where heat management will be more of a challenge.
These latest tweaks are part of a broader, year-long effort by Red Bull to refine the cooling outlets in the bodywork. The new engine cover introduced in Saudi Arabia is the third specification of 2025, following the version brought to Japan just two weeks earlier. The issue isn’t just reliability; the team is clearly focused on finding the best compromise between cooling, aerodynamic efficiency, and engine performance—an approach that also involves how power units are rotated.
Aggressive mappings from Friday
In Jeddah, both RB21s use their second power unit of the year, with new internal combustion engines, turbos, MGU-Ks, and MGU-Hs. This may be part of a planned rotation to make the most of fresh components, especially on a circuit where drivers are flat-out for 70% of the lap. However, it’s also possible that Red Bull and Honda are already planning to exceed the four-engine limit for the season, choosing instead to use the power unit more aggressively from Friday onward.
That’s exactly what happened in Jeddah, where Helmut Marko confirmed the use of more aggressive engine maps during practice compared to previous rounds, to get a clearer read on performance and better inform setup decisions. It’s hard to say whether the use of a new PU and the simultaneous introduction of a new engine cover is just a coincidence or part of a broader plan. The impression is that reliability still isn’t fully satisfying Red Bull and Honda, and they may be willing to sacrifice some aerodynamic efficiency—or even accept a grid penalty later in the year—in exchange for squeezing out a few more horsepower from the Japanese power unit.
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