Red Bull finished third in the 2024 F1 World Championship. That is not good—this is the team’s clear stance, with a strong intent to return to the top. The upcoming season will be unique for all teams in the premier motorsport category. The latest regulatory overhaul set to take effect in a year will disrupt the technological landscape and force teams into an unprecedented extra effort. The FIA has mandated that the design of the 2026 cars could not begin before January.
Despite this, at least on paper, teams have long been studying the future regulations, both in terms of power units and chassis and aerodynamics. In this context, the upcoming season, set to begin in about 40 days, is somewhat of an obligatory stop—an unavoidable commitment aimed at maximizing the performance of technologies and paradigms that, in a few months, will become obsolete. Max Verstappen claimed his fourth consecutive drivers’ championship with great merit.
However, Red Bull has several doubts about the project. Many uncertainties. In some ways, the next championship will be the most important for the Milton Keynes-based team. It is a season in which it must prove it has a winning structure, regardless of personnel. The departure of several senior engineers, key figures in Red Bull’s two dominant eras in F1, presents an opportunity for a major generational shift and, by extension, to demonstrate that victory is not solely the result of individual genius—even if that individual is someone as legendary as Adrian Newey.
Horner had revealed that the Red Bull RB21 would hit the track as early as late January for the customary shakedown at Silverstone. However, as time passed, the statement from the team principal and CEO of the racing blue-colored team lost credibility. Speculation arose that such an early debut might stem from technical uncertainties within the Austrian team’s design department. Being the first on track, even for a filming day, could allow the team to start gathering useful information about the correlation between real-world data and virtual simulations.
F1, Red Bull: What’s Happening in Milton Keynes?
Contrary to Horner’s announcement, the RB21 will be one of the last cars to be unveiled, just like in previous years. At this point, it is difficult to determine whether the team principal’s statements in December were mere pre-tactics or if the design of the first post-Newey car followed a different development plan than initially intended. What is certain is that the winning paradigm established with the RB18 revealed its physiological limitations from mid-2024 onward.
This became evident when the competition, rather than just being a threat, proved clearly superior—particularly McLaren, the reigning world champion, and Ferrari, which finished ahead of Red Bull in the Constructors’ Championship. Pierre Wache’s engineering team had realized as early as spring 2024 that the new car could not simply be a logical evolution of the RB20, as there was no further potential to extract. At this point, it is reasonable to assume that Red Bull’s engineers opted to take all the time available.
Perhaps in the hope of replicating last season’s explosive start—a technical and sporting leap that yielded excellent results. Two factors that, by the end of the championship, proved decisive in securing yet another title for the immensely talented driver from Hasselt. An approach that all competitors will inevitably adopt, as many resources will soon be redirected toward the futuristic 2026 projects. The covers will be lifted off Red Bull’s latest creation, the RB21, on Tuesday, the 25th of this month.
On that day, the Milton Keynes-based team has also booked the Sakhir circuit in Bahrain for the first of the two private filming days allowed for F1 teams in 2025, as per the FIA sporting regulations. The following day, things will get serious, still in the Middle East, when all the new cars will begin testing their respective technical projects in preparation for the season’s first race, which, this year, will once again take place in the spectacular setting of Albert Park in Melbourne.
Leave a Reply