F1 | Why Red Bull’s decision to keep developing the RB21 will benefit the RB22 despite draining resources
The Red Bull team principal has explained why the team decided to keep developing the RB21 until the end of the season. The goal is not only to give Max Verstappen a car capable of fighting for the championship but also to ensure that every development tool and process is fully refined and validated for next year’s car.
Red Bull refuses to give up. With six races remaining in the 2025 Formula 1 season, Max Verstappen sits 63 points behind the top of the Drivers’ Championship standings but continues to close the gap to the McLaren duo of Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris.
Even at Marina Bay — a circuit that, on paper, should have favored the MCL39 — Max Verstappen managed to gain a few valuable points on both McLaren drivers, keeping his slim hopes alive for a fifth consecutive Formula 1 world title after the four he secured in the previous seasons.
Verstappen’s continued presence in the title fight is not only the result of his extraordinary talent and consistency but also of the remarkable work carried out at Milton Keynes. Despite being heavily involved in the development of the 2026 car, Red Bull has chosen to keep pushing the RB21 to its limits through constant upgrades.
“Let’s put it this way: I think everyone at Milton Keynes has been working extremely hard from the first race until now, never stopping to find more performance in this car,” said Laurent Mekies, the Red Bull team principal.
“It’s fair to say that the progress made in recent weeks has been remarkable. Credit goes to everyone back at the factory who never gave up, to Max, whose sensitivity behind the wheel has pushed us to explore different development paths, and finally, we’ve found a direction that unlocked some real performance.”
According to Laurent Mekies, there has been no single miracle solution behind Red Bull’s resurgence. Instead, the team introduced several updates, tested multiple setup approaches, and refined how the car is managed across different circuits. “Overall, it seems we now have a competitive package on most tracks,” he noted, “but it’s hard to look back and say where we would be today with the early-season updates. We don’t look backward — we look forward.”
With Max Verstappen expected to become one of the most sought-after drivers on the market in the coming seasons, Red Bull is doing everything possible to provide him with a car capable of fighting for victories. That effort extends to the final races of the 2025 campaign, even if it might seem to come at the expense of the 2026 car — which will be entirely different from the RB21 due to the new technical regulations.
At first glance, this approach could appear counterproductive. Allocating development resources to a car that will soon be obsolete — with the championship out of reach — might seem like a poor investment. However, Laurent Mekies explained the reasoning behind this strategy, emphasizing that it goes far beyond simply giving Verstappen the best possible car for the remainder of the season.
“From Oracle Red Bull Racing’s perspective, even without considering what other teams are doing, it’s extremely important to understand whether our current project still has performance potential,” he said. “It’s crucial to dig deep into that because we will assess and design next year’s car — even under completely different regulations — using the same tools and methodologies.”
The French team principal stressed that the RB21 serves as a testing platform for Red Bull’s development systems and processes. “It’s vital that with this year’s car we verify whether our data analysis methods are correct, whether our development approach is accurate, and whether it produces the level of performance that will give us confidence during the winter when we design next year’s car,” he continued.
Mekies acknowledged that such an approach inevitably comes at a cost. “Of course, this strategy has a price — it impacts the 2026 project. But we believe it’s the right compromise for us,” he explained. “It’s not about judging what other teams are doing. It’s about ensuring that when we move to next year’s car, our entire development system is running at full potential.”
In essence, Red Bull’s continued focus on upgrading the RB21 is a long-term investment. Each update introduced now helps validate aerodynamic simulations, wind tunnel data, and correlation between design and on-track behavior — all of which will be essential in ensuring that the 2026 Red Bull challenger starts on a solid foundation.
As Laurent Mekies summarized, “This year’s car is not just about fighting for points or wins anymore. It’s about making sure every element of our design and analysis process works perfectly, so we can carry that knowledge and confidence into the new regulatory era.”
For Red Bull, this means that even the closing stages of the 2025 season serve a greater purpose: to prepare the ground for another dominant cycle once the new era of Formula 1 begins.
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