Red Bull created surprise in the paddock when their ‘real life’ Formula One challenger was finally revealed in Bahrain pre-season testing. The cars on display at the F175 launch event were not representative given the teams are reticent to give their competitors a look at their new concepts until the last moment.
Even to the educated eye, it seemed as though Red Bull had made few changes from their RB20 car which competed in 2024 with speculation rife they were concentrating on their 2026 all new car. In answer to this suggestion, team boss Christie Horner explained on day one of the test:
“I think that in this cycle of regulations, it’s clear that the cars have converged and they look very similar. I think probably Ferrari is a standout as probably being a differentiator, but it’s inevitable that marginal gains are going to be there every season.”
RB21 a significantly “different concept”
Horner emphasised the point that whilst the car looks similar, there were key objectives the team was hoping to meet. “Every surface on our car is different to last year. It just looks similar because it’s a similar philosophy. But you can see other cars have converged with that. We’ve had a good winter. We’ve prepared well. I think this car, whilst it doesn’t look a huge amount visibly different to last year’s car, is subtly different in many different areas and particularly in the areas that you can’t see.”
With the current breed of ground effect cars in F1, around 50% of the downforce is created underneath the car and to that effect these modifications from year to year can be difficult to spot.
Red Bull have changed the platform on which the RB21 runs in an effort to widen the optimum window of operation given its predecessor was “too peaky” according to Horner. This meant they spent most of the test effecting a wide range of setup trials even throwing on flow vis paint just before the chequered flag fell on the final day.
Some have interpreted this as Red Bull being ‘in trouble’ given they failed to perform a single long run race simulation across the whole of the three day test. Lewis Hamilton reflective the majority of the analysts views that McLaren look the team to beat, but feared Red Bull were a dark horse.
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“McLaren did a great run, and I think also Max [Verstappen] did a decent one, even with the temperatures [on the final morning of testing],” Hamilton told assembled media. “It’s hard to know what fuel loads everyone is running, as we’re all doing our own programmes, so you have to take everything with a pinch of salt.”
“But they [McLaren] won the constructors’ last year. We expect them to be one of the quickest, if not the quickest, as with Red Bull, who dominated for many, many years,” concluded the seven times world champion.
Red Bull’s technical director, Pierre Wache told the media present that in fact the RB21, whilst looking similar to its predecessor, had in fact undergone bigger changes than in previous years.
“I think it’s more different than what we saw between RB19 and RB20 in terms of characteristic,” he said. “After the end of the season of the RB19, there was an evolution. The shape [of the RB20] was massively different, but it was the same concept type.
Previous setup data now ‘out of the window’
“Now, clearly, the way we extract the speed, the characteristic of the car, is quite different,” said the Adrian Newey protege. The intimation is that Red Bull had run into a brick wall with their previous iteration of cars and to continue the chase for improved lap time, areas of the suspension and underfloor aerodynamics required a radical overhaul.
With Red Bull making significant concept changes, much of their previous data on setup of the car is now out the window. The constant changes in setup made by the team during testing were them merely defining the boundaries to the window in which the car can operate.
The team were clearly seeking the point where the car is optimised, which they appeared not to find, something Wache also addressed. “To be competitive, you have to extract the potential of it at one point in terms of how you use it,” he said.
“What it [the changes for 2025] gives us is a little bit more option to rebalance it. It is taking more time to understand what is your best option, and I think that is the process we are in at the moment.”
Red Bull plan no upgrades for Australia
The process will continue back at the factory as the data from the test is repeatedly crunched and as Christian Horner revealed the car we will see in Australia will pretty much be the one they took to Bahrain.
“It’s basically the car that we’ll start the season with. There may be some subtle changes introduced between now and then, but fundamentally it’s what we’ll be taking to Melbourne,” revealed the Red Bull boss.
This supports the view aired by Pierre Wache, that the team will continue their search for the optimum setup in a given set of weather and track conditions and from there they can expand the window of operation.
Clearly the start of the 2025 season will be different from last year, when Red Bull dominated the testing an won seven of the first ten Grand Prix. This is reflected in Horner’s concluding comments where he believes no team will dominate this year.
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“Some cars might suit some circuits better than others. And it’s all going to be about extracting the maximum amount of your platform out of your package and getting it right on the day,” the Red Bull team boss revealed.
“I think the biggest winner out of that will be the fans and the followers of the sport because, as Zak [Brown] says, you could quite easily have eight winners this year and some curveballs in there, as well that it could really be pretty open,” he concluded.
So the mystery of the Red Bull challenger looking similar to its predecessor is now out. Whilst the surfaces on top of the car have merely been refined, underneath there’s a lot going on which Red Bull are yet to fully understand.
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With over 30 years of experience in Formula 1 as an insider journalist, I have built trusted connections across the paddock, from race engineers and mechanics to senior team figures. At The Judge 13, I and a handful of trusted colleagues share exclusive Formula 1 news, expert analysis and behind-the-scenes stories you will not find in mainstream motorsport media.
