The DRS Zone

Tag: Red Bull

  • F1 Testing Day 1

    The 2025 F1 Season officially started yesterday with the first of three days of testing in Bahrain

    The first day saw all drivers take part and one of the key things to note, was reliability. None of the teams seemed to suffer any major reliability issues that caused them to lose any significant time, and most teams managed a good number of laps.

    HaaS160
    VCARB154
    Mercedes148
    Ferrari141
    Alpine140
    Red Bull132
    Williams131
    Mclaren118
    Kick114
    Aston Martin88

    McLaren will obviously take the headline for topping the session, but we all know that testing means nothing, and we won’t know the true order until we get to Australia. However, the car does look good. From the onboards there isn’t much wheel spin, and it seems very planted through the corners.

    McLaren, unlike some of the other teams have not made any radical changes, Zak Brown has said that whilst it looks the same as last year there are plenty of new innovations on the car that have not been seen, and rumour has it that they have gained 4 tenths on last year’s car. The other three teams at the front have all tried something different this year, Ferrari have changed their suspension layout, Red Bull have re-designed the front of the car to improve their understeer issues and Mercedes are trying something different, which they are trying to keep under wraps.

    The rest of the field look quite close again. Alpine are certainly having a better start to testing than they were this time last year which is positive. Aston Martin, although completing the lowest number of laps look solid and I would say so far, the car looks better than last season. The remaining teams all look like they have made improvements on this time last season but what the order will be is hard to guess

    Unusually there were no red flags brought out by cars stopped on track, however there was a lengthy stop after the power to the circuit was lost which was slightly embarrassing. As a result, the session was extended so the teams could recuperate the lost running time, and all the rookies got through the session without issues save for the odd spin and running wide at some corners.

    This is how the first day ended.

    1) Lando Norris, McLaren, 1:30.430, 52 laps

    2) George Russell, Mercedes, 1:30.587, 70 laps

    3) Max Verstappen, Red Bull, 1:30.674, 74 laps

    4) Charles Leclerc, Ferrari, 1:30.878, 71 laps

    5) Carlos Sainz, Williams, 1:30.955, 68 laps

    6) Pierre Gasly, Alpine, 1:31.353, 72 laps

    7) Andrea Kimi Antonelli, Mercedes, 1:31.428, 78 laps

    8) Liam Lawson, Red Bull, 1:31.560, 58 laps

    9) Alex Albon, Williams 1:31.573, 63 laps

    10) Yuki Tsunoda, Racing Bulls, 1:31.610, 78 laps

    11) Isack Hadjar, Racing Bulls, 1:31.631, 76 laps

    12) Gabriel Bortoleto, Sauber, 1:31.690, 59 laps

    13) Lewis Hamilton, Ferrari, 1:31.834, 70 laps

    14) Jack Doohan, Alpine 1:31.841, 68 laps

    15) Fernando Alonso, Aston Martin, 1:31.874, 46 laps

    16) Lance Stroll, Aston Martin, 1:31.949, 42 laps

    17) Oscar Piastri, McLaren, 1:32.084, 66 laps

    18) Nico Hulkenberg, Sauber, 1:32.169, 55 laps

    19) Esteban Ocon, Haas, 1:33.600, 88 laps

    20) Oliver Bearman, Haas, 1:35.522, 72 laps

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  • F1 75 Live Event

    Jack Whitehall presented the F1 75 event at the O2 in London. During the event to celebrate 75 years of Formula 1, the teams were unveiling their liveries for the upcoming season.

    The event was opened by MGK, who is famous in the F1 world for snubbing Martin Brundle a couple of years ago on the grid for the Brazilian Grand Prix. That weekend it was also reported that MGK had left the race before it had even reached half distance. For me, it shows how far away from F1 is from fans and what they want. At an event celebrating F1, surely you want people that are fans of F1? MGK doesn’t really strike me as an F1 fan.

    What followed the opening performance was an evening of some cringey uncomfortable interviews and innuendos about Aston Martins Mike Krack. There we’re some lighter moments however when Jack Whitehall asked Gordon Ramsay about the ban on swearing on team radio.

    “These athletes push themselves to the extreme, so sometimes when it comes out, let them be real, let it go. Come on. They’re risking their life every time, traveling over 200 Miles per hour. So, if the s*** hits the fan..”

    Gordon Ramsay

    The latter part of the comment caused Whitehall’s microphone to mysteriously go off and we didn’t hear what else was said.

    The other thing I didn’t like was the booing. With its pandering to drama, F1 has attracted a whole new fan base to the sport and some of them like to boo. Having been a fan of F1 since 98, watching through the Schumacher dominance and controversies, I never heard regular booing until the last 10 years. Obviously, the booing was mainly reserved for Verstappen and Christian Horner, for me real F1 fans have a respect for all drivers for what they do and what some of them have achieved. If you want to boo, go back to the football terraces because it does not belong in F1. Whilst F1 drivers may not be as gladiatorial as some of their predecessors, they still should be respected. I will add to this that the FIA also got booed which did make me laugh, but it serves them right for trying to control everything.

    One thing I did find interesting was a quick shot of Christian and Gerri Horner at the table, with someone sat in-between them.

    Looking at the liveries, they were revealed in championship order starting from 10th onwards. VCARB won the evening for me and Red Bull was the worst. Although I do like the Red Bull livery, it is absolutely the same as it always is. I was expecting more teams to have more unpainted black carbon fibre so they can save a couple of grams in weight, but most cars seemed to be well covered in paint. Here is my rank of best to worst livery of the evening.

    1. VCARB
    2. McLaren
    3. Williams
    4. Ferrari
    5. Mercedes
    6. Aston Martin
    7. Haas
    8. Stake
    9. Alpine
    10. Red Bull

    It was good to see Hamilton in Ferrari red and I am really looking forward to seeing how he does. I hope F1 doesn’t make this an annual event, it’s a bit much really for a livery reveal. We have seen a couple of the new cars showcased from the teams on their preseason filming days, but the majority of the new cars won’t be shown until we get to testing next week.

    Please let me know what you think in the comments.

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  • 2024 Season Review – Racing Bulls

    Daniel Ricciardo (AUS) RB VCARB 01. 23.02.2024. Formula 1 Testing, Sakhir, Bahrain, Day Three. – http://www.xpbimages.com, EMail: requests@xpbimages.com © Copyright: Bearne / XPB Images

    Early Changes and Criticism

    Before the 2024 season started Alpha Tauri changed their team name to Visa Before the 2024 season started Alpha Tauri changed their team name to Visa Cash App Racing Bulls, VCARB for short and then just RB. Absolutely ridiculous. The team also came under fire again, from Zak Brown for being Red Bulls “B” team. I kind of feel as though the criticism is a bit harsh and undeserved. If RB we’re up there alongside Red Bull every weekend, then I could understand and you might be able to say that there is a much closer relationship than is allowed but the team is a firm and consistent midfield challenger and have never matched Red Bull on the track so I think it is safe to say they are not really benefiting from any extra relationship with Red Bull.

    There were some early changes for the team with long running Team Principal Frans Tost leaving at the end of 2023. It’s not always ideal to prepare for a season after losing such a long serving figure head. New people come in with new ideas and can upset the apple cart. They did, however, start the season with the same driver line up of Daniel Ricciardo and Yuki Tsunoda. Something which would change after Singapore.

    The Team

    On paper it wasn’t a bad season for the Red Bull Junior team, although they finished in the same position as they did in 2023 (8th), they did score almost double their 2023 tally with Tsunoda scoring the majority of the points. They leap frogged Williams, but also lost ground to Haas. They could have however finished above Alpine, if they hadn’t had a very fruitful Brazilian GP.

    In terms of in-season developments, like most midfield teams there wasn’t too many, however what they did bring, worked and didn’t affect their performance in a negative way too much.

    It’s always hard to judge the midfield teams because they are so closely matched and fight for only a handful of points.

    The Drivers

    We saw what as potentially the end of Daniel Ricciardo’s career as an F1 driver. He was a bit of a conundrum for me really. I have always felt that he ran away from Red Bull and shied away from the challenge of Verstappen. He never really seemed to hit the heights or consistency he had when he was at Red Bull and just as he started discovering some form he ditched Renault for McLaren, which turned out to be a disastrous move and start the beginning of the end for him. He was lucky to return to F1 in 2023, however from the start he was regularly outperformed by Tsunoda.

    Daniel Ricciardo would eventually be replaced by Liam Lawson after the Singapore Grand Prix. He seems to be the chosen one at the moment. For those six the races they had together Lawson out qualified Tsunoda once and didn’t really outshine him in any of the races, with Tsunoda scoring the more points. I personally don’t think Lawson has really done anything to earn the drive at the main Red Bull team, but it will be interesting to see how he gets on.

    For 2025..

    2025 will see Hadjar join Tsunoda. I personally think he will outperform the rookie and so he should. I also have a feeling this will be Tsunoda’s last season at RB, I think he will be looking elsewhere for 2026. The team however need to push on and move forward in that midfield battle, it will be hard however with a rookie. Hadjar needs to find consistency first over speed, else RB might be finding themselves with a lot of repair bills.

    2024 Season Rating 5/10

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  • Should F1 Revise its Point Scoring Positions?

    I was talking to a friend the other day about the point system that is in F1 currently. In this post, we will discuss points for the main race and will ignore the sprint and the point awarded for fastest lap.

    The Current State of Play

    If you don’t know this is the breakdown of the current points scoring positions:

    1st – 256th – 8
    2nd – 187th – 6
    3rd – 158th – 4
    4th – 129th – 2
    5th – 1010th – 1

    Is Anything Changing for 2025?

    In short, no. There was a discussion earlier on in 2024, to increase the points scoring positions from 1st-10th to 1st-12th. However, when it was put to a vote, it was unanimously decided by the F1 Commission to not make any changes.

    What Is My Opinion?

    For 2025 it means that the midfield teams will continue to struggle to make any headway in the championship. Whilst its right to reward success, it’s also right to not reward failure. It’s a hard line to take but let me explain my why I think that way.

    Firstly, I remember watching a Practice Session on Sky and hearing David Croft say he thinks all cars that finish should score points. I don’t agree with this because if all cars finish the race, I do not believe you should reward a driver/ team for finishing dead last. The whole aim of the game in F1 is to push the boundary and try to make your way up that grid. In my opinion if you have point’s all the way down the finishing positions, for me it gives teams less of an incentive to improve and it gives them less of a target to work towards.

    On the flip side however, the reliability of the cars in F1 now, particularly from the top 4 teams is almost bullet proof. I had a quick look through last season’s results and for a large part of the season (save for the odd occasion) the top 8 scoring positions were taken by drivers from Red Bull, McLaren, Ferrari and Mercedes. That means 60% of the F1 grid are fighting for 2-point scoring positions. The reliability in F1 now is the highest it has been for as long as I can remember, and this might partially be down to the way the cars are driven these days. It feels that 90% of races these days are more of a time trial than a race, the drivers are more focused on saving tyres and fuel than they are racing. Obviously, technology has also come a long way since I started watching F1 in 1998 when you’d regularly see engines or gearboxes let go, but I also feel this generation of cars are not pushed to the limit of tolerances as often as they used to be.

    The midfield is so tightly packed that I personally think the points positions should be extended out to 12th or 13th, it would give the teams more fruits for their labour without rewarding someone for finishing last 30seconds behind the car in front and it could also lead to some more interesting battles in the middle of the pack. It’s an interesting topic of conversation and I would love to be able to see what others think. Please leave a comment and let me know what you think.

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  • Happy New Year

    A Round Up Of The Gossip

    I hope if you are reading this you had a good Christmas and New Year and took the time to recharge and indulge. Since my last post there has been a few items of gossip worth talking about, so let’s get straight to it.

    Cheerio Checo

    Red Bull confirmed the departure of Sergio Perez from the team with Immediate effect and as expected announced Liam Lawson as his replacement. You must feel for Checo as he comes across as being a nice guy but ultimately you can’t be surprised at his departure given his form last season. F1 is a ruthless sport and Red Bull are known to be one of the more ruthless teams and arguably his results this season, or lack of them, potentially cost RB the Constructors Championship. Red Bull did however shoot themselves in the foot and made it harder by giving him the new contract just before the Canadian GP, I personally think they should have tried to go after Sainz, but I understand that Sainz Snr and Jos Verstappen don’t like each other, shock.

    He is replaced by Liam Lawson, getting the drive over Yuki Tsunoda, despite Tsunoda comfortably beating him in their head-to-head last season. For me the jury is still out on Lawson, I personally don’t think he’s shown anywhere as much as some of the other drivers that have had that second seat, but time will tell, and I may be proved wrong. I can see however, that he will likely cause sparks within the team and will possibly get his collar felt by Helmut Marko and Jos Verstappen.

    One wonders what Tsunoda must be thinking, he has done everything they have asked of him, and he has improved massively since he first entered F1. Unless Lawson fails spectacularly and gets the early axe, I think he will look elsewhere for 2026. Hard to know really where he would go, however. His best options might be Haas or trying for one of the spots with the new Cadillac team.

    What next for Checo? There is a strong possibility that we may not see him as a driver on the grid again. As with Tsunoda, spots for 2026 are already looking slim and unless there are any significant driver swaps/ moves the only real place I could see Checo ending up is either Haas or Cadillac, both teams would certainly benefit from the financial backing he brings.

    Isack Hadjar Takes The Last Seat

    With the promotion of Lawson, the young Frenchman takes the last spot on the grid. Again, for me I don’t really think this is a particularly strong choice. I have seen him in several F2 & F3 races over the last couple of years and whilst he has flashes of brilliance, he does have occasions where he goes missing or makes a lot of mistakes. For example, he had the chance to win the 2024 F2 Championship and stalled on the grid, then he had the audacity on team radio to blame the team! Time will tell and we will see how ruthless RB will be next year if he does not perform.

    Bottas Returns To Mercedes

    Another one to lose his seat at the end of 2024, Bottas is returning to Mercedes to be their reserve driver. Smart move for me, he did well when he was alongside Hamilton and will bring some experience that Antonelli can learn from for next season. He is also in prime position should Antonelli fail to deliver anything but the car back in bits.

    Hamilton Starts At Ferrari

    Finally, as its the start of a new year, that means that Hamilton has officially now joined Ferrari, despite the hoopla that surrounded him in Abu Dhabi he has not left the sport and will be donning the red overalls this season.

    What’s To Come?

    For F1 next up is the fancy multi-team reveal of their 2025 cars/ liveries in London. It’s more likely to be a livery reveal than an actual car launch.

    For me over the next couple of weeks I will be releasing my review and thoughts of 2024 team by team. I will start from the back of the grid and move forward. Looking forward to starting to add more now we are in 2025, evolving and hopefully growing. To stay up to date please subscribe (its free) and drop a like on the post.

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  • Red Bulls Checo Conundrum

    Unless you’ve lived in a hole the last few months speculation has been rife that Red Bull intend to replace Sergio Perez with either Liam Lawson or Yuki Tsunoda.

    The Background

    I first wanted to briefly touch upon the decision by RB earlier on in the season to renew Perez’s contract. Perez had, had a tough run of races and it was a surprise to many when RB announced at The Canadian Grand Prix the contract extension that would take him through to at least the end of the 2025 season and into the 2026 season. I can only assume the reasoning behind this was the hope it might give him a bit of a morale boost and give him a platform to go and kick on from. Unfortunately, that hasn’t been the case, not only did he have a weekend to forget in Canada, but the remainder of the season was shocking as well.

    You could argue until you’re blue in the face that his struggles have come due to the performance of the car or if he has even been given an equal car. However, you do have to assume that upgrades went to Max first based on his position in the championship but that doesn’t mean Perez didn’t get them, at the end of the day the goal for RB is to win the constructors championship. Despite popular belief, it is not in RB’s best interest for one of their drivers struggle, they’ve now gone from 1st to 3rd in the standings which whilst it will mean an increase in wind tunnel time and development hours, it does mean they will have less prize money to use on the car.

    The Options

    The replacement options being considered come in the form of Yuki Tsunoda or Liam Lawson. For me I don’t think either of them are of the level that RB need to get back to the top of the championship. You look at Ferrari and McLaren, both of their drivers are generally closely matched and consistently scoring good points.

    Tsunoda has had some flashes of brilliance but for me he lacks the consistency, and he also seems quite hot headed. He also doesn’t strike me as being the most constructive driver when it comes to feedback for the engineers on car set up and development.

    Lawson seems like the chosen one, personally I don’t think he’s shown enough in his time in F1 to really be the man to go up against Verstappen. He stepped in for a few races last season for the injured Daniel Ricciardo and then this season he replaced him completely after Singapore. For me he hasn’t really set the world alight. He does however seem to have a strong character about him which he will need going up against Verstappen. He does come across as a bit arrogant and he certainly doesn’t seem to mind ruffling some feathers, if he gets the move to RB and starts ruffling Max’s feathers that won’t sit well, and he won’t last long.

    The Problem

    Red Bull have themselves a problem and I am not talking about who they pick as a replacement. I am talking about Perez himself. At the time of writing Sergio Perez has a contract to race next season, he is not just going to give that up. Obviously, I don’t know the ins and outs of his contract, but unless RB have some get out clauses within it, it could be hard for them to get out of it. I read a rumour that it could cost Reb Bull up to $80m to cancel his contract, if that is true not only is it a huge sum of money but it might also suggest that there are in fact no performance based “get out” clauses in his contract. Not only that, but Perez also comes with significant sponsorship backing. RB are obviously not short of a penny, but they need to make careful decisions because the drop in prize money, the loss of the sponsorship from him and any monetary payments they must make to terminate the contract could all be factors for next seasons budget.

    Final Thoughts

    Ultimately, I think RB will still replace Sergio Perez. They could go for something they have not done since they joined Formula 1 and give both drivers a go next season. For those who may not know, when RB joined F1 in 2005 they had David Coulthard as their main driver and the second seat they were due to swap between Christian Klien and Vitantonio Liuzzi. That season Klien ended up doing more races that Liuzzi, but it is something they could consider doing again.

    I think they will go with Lawson, he seems to be the chosen one at the moment after Verstappen and they seem to have a lot of faith in him. However, that could also be said of Kvyat, Gasly and Albon all of which seemed to be in the good graces at the time of moving to the main team but in the end they didn’t have the best of times in the other Red Bull and ultimately left for other teams.

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