Coming into the 2025 pre-season testing, Red Bull had many question marks over their performance and handling. Their 2025 car — the RB21 — is an evolution of the RB20, with several parts carried over from last season. So, there was a notion that the Austrian outfit could inherit their balance issues this season.
Their team principal Christian Horner, however, has shared some optimistic updates about how the RB21 is faring so far in Bahrain. While the pre-season test is only halfway through, both Red Bull drivers are feeling better in the car. Horner first stated how the second half of their 2024 season put them in a corner from where they found it incredibly difficult to recover.
The handling of the car was quite “sensitive” and worse than a shopping trolley at times, particularly at races like Hungary, where Max Verstappen was frustrated to his core and went on a huge rant. Red Bull acknowledged how their upgrades on the aggressive RB20 package weren’t working well, which is why they rolled it back.
But the major overhaul had to come over the winter. Horner stated how they “understood some of the limitations of RB20 and the team have worked hard to try and address those”. So, have Red Bull ironed out all the chinks in their armor?
For now, Horner seems fairly confident about that. “Both drivers are now reporting that it is easier to drive,” the Red Bull boss told Sky Sports F1. From the looks of it, the RB21 has run smoothly over the past day and a half.
Lights out on Day One of Testing… again
132 total Laps completed in Bahrain for Max and Liam, back tomorrow for Day ✌️ #F1Testing || #RedBullRacing pic.twitter.com/bvxKiwWSi0
— Oracle Red Bull Racing (@redbullracing) February 26, 2025
Except for a spin for Liam Lawson in the morning session on day one, there were no major gremlins visible in the handling of the car. While Verstappen also had a smooth session in the evening, he did land up about two tenths short of Lando Norris’ table-topping time.
Lawson’s fastest lap put him over 1.1 second off Norris’ time, but a crucial reason for that was that the Kiwi driver ran during the morning, when the track conditions were much slower with the track not rubbered in. But as testing times can be highly misleading than the actual pecking order, Red Bull could’ve more pace potential to unlock.
Red Bull have been hinting at solving their issues
Besides the balance issues in the car’s handling, Red Bull also suffered from a side-effect of the stiff suspension, which made the car’s ride a bit uncomfortable on bumpy street circuits and tracks with bigger kerbs. The kerb and bump-riding ability of the RB20 handicapped both drivers’ performance on tracks like Monaco, Baku, and Singapore last season.
Marko had hinted during the winter break that they are getting good data on the simulator and the wind tunnel, which means that these issues of the RB20 could be resolved in its 2025 iteration.
“In the wind tunnel, those problems seem to have been solved, but we will see during the test in Bahrain,” he said.
With Horner reporting that the car seems better on these fronts during the Bahrain test, Marko’s comments are turning out to be true. The 51-year-old stated, “We are working through a programme, lots of different configurations as you have to get all that data through three days of running. At the moment, the data ties in with our simulations.”
All in all, it could be the perfect boost for Verstappen, who raised his game last year by winning the world championship with a sub-par car that experienced all the aforementioned problems.
Heading into 2025, he admittedly needs a car that is quick enough without any gremlins and he will take care of the rest in terms of his championship defense. Not a good sign for his potential title challengers like Norris, who many labeled as the pre-season favorite!
