Last Updated on November 12 2025, 1:50 pm

Brazil experiment yields insights – With the season reaching its final three races, the team is clinging onto a glimmer of hope. Helmut Marko revealed that the enigma surrounding the RB21’s underbody, which has plagued the team all year, was finally solved in Brazil. Whether that “crack” will lead to champagne celebrations or more carbon fibre dust remains to be seen.

 

A weekend of Brazilian drama

The São Paulo Grand Prix was a weekend of two halves for Red Bull. On the one hand, qualifying was an unmitigated disaster. On the other hand, Sunday’s race was a minor miracle, with Max Verstappen driving as if he had rediscovered the art of Formula 1 racing. In his ‘Speedweek’ column, Helmut Marko revealed the secret: it wasn’t divine intervention or caffeine, but an underbody experiment.

According to the wise doctor from Graz, Red Bull ran two different floor designs in Brazil. This experiment, he says, gave the team “new insights”. A noble way of saying, ‘We had no idea what we were doing on Friday, but something worked by accident on Sunday.’

However, the car’s behaviour in qualifying was ‘outside the operating window’, which in F1 terms means ‘we fiddled with it until it stopped working’.

Piastri penalty shows FIA guidelines have failed

 

This mysterious window

Marko elaborated that the RB21’s biggest weakness isn’t the drivers, engineers or even the laws of physics, it’s this mythical ‘operating window’.

Apparently, the car’s performance depends on everything aligning with Swiss-watch precision.

“Half a millimetre of ground clearance or a few degrees of track temperature can turn the RB21 from a rocket ship into a shopping trolley,” Marko lamented (his actual words).

One can only imagine the poor engineers now measuring asphalt temperatures like Michelin star chefs testing sauce viscosity. Even a single bead of sweat from a mechanic’s forehead could upset the delicate balance. The RB21 is a diva of the highest order; sensitive, temperamental and utterly intolerant of human error.

Marko insists that millimetres make all the difference. If so, Red Bull’s championship campaign may have been decided by someone sneezing near the car during parc fermé.

Ferrari Civil War Erupts as Drivers and Engineers Turn on Each Other

 

Floor wars and newfound wisdom

Still, amid all the chaos, Red Bull appears to have stumbled upon some clarity. The team’s experiment with two different floor panels wasn’t in vain, Marko assures us.

“We now know, in principle, which floor panel we will continue to use,” he says, though the cautious phrasing is noticeable. ‘In principle’ isn’t exactly confidence-inspiring, but in F1 terms, it’s practically a love letter.

The Austrian sage also revealed that the correct wing setting has been found. So at least two variables are now off the table, leaving only about 437 more to get wrong. With the championship slipping away faster than a pit stop in Monaco, Red Bull is determined to squeeze every ounce of performance from this aerodynamic jigsaw puzzle before the curtain falls in Abu Dhabi.

Webber role in Piastri management questioned

 

A glimmer of championship hope?

But will all this newfound wisdom bring Verstappen another title? Even Marko isn’t counting on it. “49 points behind Norris,” he reminded readers, “with three Grands Prix and a sprint race remaining.”

For Max to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat, a combination of miracles will be needed: Norris could develop an unexplained allergy to steering wheels, McLaren’s car could spontaneously combust, and there could be a small meteor strike in Woking.

However, Helmut remains the eternal optimist, or perhaps the eternal realist. He admits that ‘something has to happen’ to Norris to keep Verstappen’s hopes alive. And in F1, something usually does, though rarely what you’d expect.

Mekies ordered to ‘stop’ Verstappen

 

A team on the brink of rediscovery

While Red Bull’s engineers measure the RB21’s underside with micrometers, the rest of the paddock watches with bemused fascination. Once the all-conquering juggernaut, Red Bull now resembles an obsessive watchmaker fine-tuning a cuckoo clock that refuses to chime. Yet there’s a certain charm in this struggle. The champions who once dominated now battle for tenths of a second and millimetres, and perhaps a touch of redemption.

In Brazil, at least, they found something, whether that is progress or delusion is another question entirely. The underbody mystery may finally have been ‘solved’, but as with every great mystery, the answer probably just raises more questions. Nevertheless, Red Bull’s persistence is admirable. They may not win this year’s title, but they’ve certainly earned the “Most Creative Ways to Ruin a Qualifying Session” award.

As the circus heads to Las Vegas, the fate of the RB21 hangs in the balance. Will Marko’s millimetre miracle deliver? Or will the underbody enlightenment fade under the neon glare of the Strip? Whatever happens, one thing is certain: Red Bull’s 2025 campaign will go down as the most scientifically baffling, philosophically confusing and unintentionally hilarious season in recent memory.

So, as the jury looks on, perhaps we should all raise a glass — preferably of something fizzy and highly caffeinated — to the noble art of Red Bull experimentation. It’s proof that even the mighty can still spend millions discovering the importance of half a millimetre.

McLaren worrying statement about Red Bull in Brazil

 

MORE F1 NEWS – Italy stunned by Ferrari insider castigating Elkann

The post Sau Paulo statement issued by Ferrari chairman, John Elkann, sent a thunderclap over the iconic sportscar brand in Maranello and then around the world of motorsport.

Having upraised the Scuderia engineers and mechanics, Elkann proceeded to attack Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc. “The rest is not up to par,” said the Ferrari chairman. “We have drivers who need to focus on driving, talk less…” We need drivers who think more about Ferrari and less about themselves was the blunt message.

Lewis Hamilton never one to not speak posted his defiant response within the hour. “I back my team. I back myself. I will not give up. Not now, not then, not ever. Thank you, Brazil, always,” the seven-time world champion posted on Instagram. The message was clear, Lewis will not be cowed into submission.

 

Ferrari drivers respond to criticism

Charles Leclerc was the first to post and his message contained a more diplomatic tone echoing Elkann’s call for togertherness. “A very difficult weekend in Sao Paulo,” he wrote on X.

“Disappointing to come back home with nearly no points at all for the team in what is a critical moment of the season to fight for the second place in the constructors’ championship. It’s uphill from now and it’s clear that only unity can help us turn that situation around in the last three races. We’ll give it all, as always.”

Whether the Elkann comments were intended to be motivational is unclear as is the incident which gave rise to Jim feeling he needed to vent in such a public fashion. There have been a number of voices who have criticised the Ferrari chairman’s intervention, with F1 car designer bluntly stating, “engage your brain before your mouth.”

Ferrari’s most successful era was under the leadership of Jean Todt along with Ross Brawn with Michael Schumacher eventually hitting the headlines with his dominant five years of championships. At that time, Todt and Brawn created a bubble around the team to protect them from interference from the Ferrari hierarchy…READ MORE