Max Verstappen may well wish his RB21 Formula One car was indeed a carriage from a white knuckle ride roller coaster, because bar the odd tragedy those things run on rails. In stark contrast id Red Bull’s latest F1 challenger which whilst it goes up and down, there is little to explain the reason for the high’s and the lows the team is presently facing.

Whilst each year the teams design all new Formula One cars there usually a carry over in their design philosophy, often something which lasts for a number of year’s. The Adrian Newey Red Bull cars were famed for the high ‘rake’ aerodynamics, where the rear of the car was significantly higher from the ground than the front end.

The angle created by this deign means the entire car acts as something of a wing creating downforce but more importantly places the front wing closer to the ground which would give it more front end grip than a flatter raked car in the slower corners.

 

 

 

Root of RBR trouble two years old

Come the arrival of the ground effect cars in 2022, the rake philosophy had be to be abandoned by Red Bull and others given it was now vital for the new cars to run as level as possible thus keeping the low pressure air seal constant which sucks the cars onto the track.

With his early career in the days of the first F1ground effect cars, Newey as expected aced the radically different 2022 regulations and Max won the drivers’ title at a canter, with around 50% more points than his closest rival in Charles Leclerc. Come 2023 the Red Bull car design was finessed and with Newey firmly at the helm and with no thoughts of leaving the team, we saw the most incredible record breaking season the sport has ever witnessed.

However, the seeds were then sown for the current woes Red Bull are experiencing with their RB21. The underfloor design is crucial to these modern cars given now around 50% of the overall downforce comes from the maze of Venturi channels hidden away underneath the car and as Verstappen extended his drought of wins last autumn, Christian Horner explained.

“We’ve traced the development history back and it turned out that the first mistake we made was with a floor upgrade in 2023 in Barcelona,” the Red Bull team boss was quoted by Auto Motor und Sport. “That was also the Grand Prix from which Checo (Perez) started having problems with the car. We just didn’t take it so seriously because Max (Verstappen) kept winning,” he added.

Drivers reveal new 2026 F1 engines “not good”

 

 

 

One culprit the root cause

Perez started that season with two wins and two P2’s in the first five races, then a disaster in Monaco qualifying saw him struggle to make progress through the narrow streets of the principality before the F1 circus moved on to Barcelona.

There Checo was again missing from the top ten shootout on Saturday, although he raced with purpose in the Grand Prix coming through to finish just outside the podium positions. Across the final sixteen rounds of the year whilst Max was winning all but one of the races, Perez only made the podium on five more occasions although he did hang on to make it a first Red Bull 1-2 in the drivers title race.

Nothing was ever confirmed as to the exact nature of the Red Bull car design problem which remarkably remains problematic with the current car some two years on. How is this possible with all the thousands of hours spent since of design and wind tunnel time you ,may ask? And each time there’s a deep dive into the woes for the Milton Keynes based team, one culprit is found at the bottom of the route pile – the wind tunnel.

Red Bull are operating an ageing wind tunnel facility which is located in a cold war bunker. Its exposed to significant external temperature changes which deliver different results from the same test from day to day. This inconsistency then manifests itself on track as Max Verstappen explained following a disappointing P6 in Bahrain. 

Hamilton’s string of F1 excuses for 2025 listed

 

 

 

Finessing aerodynamics more difficult

“It’s hit and miss,” he said. “Friday at Suzuka was bad. Qualifying was then a bit better. The race was a bit better but still not where I wanted it to be but at least then you are competitive. Here it was off again.”

Christian Horner is adamant the team understand the nature of the current problems they are facing but the difficulty is in designing the appropriate solutions as Christian Horner again reveals. “The problems are understood,” he explained. “The problem is that the solutions, with what we see within our tools compared to what we’re seeing on track, aren’t correlating.

“I think that that’s what we need to get to the bottom of: why can we not see within our tools what we’re seeing on the circuit?” Team technical director Pierre Wache explained last year that the results from the wind tunnel are hit and miss wit the main difficulties being “accuracy and repeatability. When you develop a new concept, this tunnel could work very well,” he said.

“It’s more when you are fighting the flattening development curve, it’s difficult to work with it because we are very dependent on the temperature in the UK. There are big swings between cold and hot. It’s very difficult for us.”

Russell news closes door for Max

 

 

 

Red Bull cars ‘always on a knife edge’

So Red Bull are finding it difficult to finesse the car design issues they have and to a certain degree are merely managing their progress by big setup experiments each weekend. The colder than expected temperatures in Japan saw Verstappen win with ease, yet come the heat of the desert and the world champion was all at sea.

The problem for Red Bull is their new wind tunnel comes on stream only in 2027, whilst McLaren are now enjoying the fruits of their earlier investment in this technology. Aston Martin’s new wind tunnel comes on stream this month and with Newey at the design helm, the team believes improved results will be coming quickly.

When Horner talks of their problems being rooted in 2023, it seems remarkable that two years on these issues have not been resolved. Yet back then, Red Bull had quite some margin  over the rest of the field and these issues were masked by their remarkable run of races wins, but now the field is much closer and the cracks have become glaringly obvious.

That said, Red Bull have always designed F1 cars which are difficult to drive and ‘on the edge’ as Mark Webber found out to his cost during the Sebastian Vettel years. He once described his trusty RBR steed as “counter intuitive” to drive, something Vettel mastered while the Aussie never got to grips with the driving style required to maximise the potential in his car.

Unaired team radio message shows the seriousness of Ferrari’s problems

 

 

 

The roller coaster set to continue

The Monte Carlo or bust scenario for Red Bull is set to continue this weekend in Jeddah as Horner admits there are no upgrades coming in the near future. The RB21 likes the faster flowing corners as we saw in Suzuka and the track along the Saudi corniche may well suit the Red Bull car.

With one of their two key design tools faulty, Red Bull have boom ever more reliance on their computer fluid design simulations. Yet even in this 21st century world of rapidly advancing technology, nothing quite beats the results obtained from a physical model being run in a real life situation, something Red Bull just do not have with another two year wait before their wind tunnel is ready.

The problem can be traced back to Adrian Newey who was offered a new wind tunnel but believed the future of F1 car design would be purely CFD. “There was a point in time that wind tunnels could have been banned,” explained Horner last year. “There was a discussion about whether that was going to be the case, and whether CFD would overtake it or not.

“Adrian [Newey] held off pushing for a new tunnel until there was clarity on that. But it got to a point where Aston Martin wanted a new tunnel and the FIA changed their stance.”

Yet the explanation given by the Red Bull team boss is unconvincing as to why they are two year’s behind Aston Martin with a new wind tunnel and three years behind McLaren who started using theirs last summer. It could be argued that McLaren have really come to the fore since their new kit came on stream, which would also suggest the foreseeable future for Red Bull is bleak.

Further talk of Doohan deadline

 

 

 

 

Verstappen’s sxit clause leaked: “Then he can leave”

Verstappen’s exit clauses revealed as pressure mounts on Red Bull amid internal turmoil – As Red Bull Racing faces one of its most turbulent periods in recent memory, fresh revelations about Max Verstappen’s contract have emerged, shedding new light on the reigning world champion’s potential exit from the team. According to Daily Mail journalist Jonathan McEvoy, who has close ties to Jos, the Dutchman’s contract contains performance-related escape clauses that could allow him to leave the team if certain conditions are not met.

These escape clauses, long rumoured and partially confirmed by Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko, are now being examined in light of the team’s recent struggles – both on and off the track. The situation paints a precarious picture for the Milton Keynes-based outfit as it battles internal strife, faltering performance and the very real possibility of losing its superstar driver…. READ MORE