F1 News: Red Bull Opens Up On 2025 Car - 'Everybody Will Be Nervous'

Saajan Jogia | Nov 18, 2024

May 4, 2024; Miami Gardens, Florida, USA; Red Bull Racing driver Max Verstappen (1) goes into turn 2 during the F1 Sprint Race at Miami International Autodrome. Mandatory Credit: Peter Casey-Imagn Images / Peter Casey-Imagn Images

Red Bull chief engineer Paul Monaghan has revealed that while the team is on course to develop its 2025 title contender, the RB21 F1 car, he has admitted to being nervous like the other teams until pre-season testing reveals a true picture of the car's performance.

Red Bull has all the reasons to be nervous, considering the challenging year it has fought through thus far with balance problems on the RB20 F1 car. To add to the problems, McLaren's resurgence cost Red Bull its lead in the Constructors' Championship, followed by a further blow as it lost second place to Ferrari, driven by similar struggles.

What could make a big difference to the car's performance is the departure of its chief technical officer, Adrian Newey, the mastermind behind the team’s dominant cars in the current ground effect era. With Newey heading to Aston Martin in March, questions loom over how Red Bull will build on its existing car, and whether it can finally resolve the lingering balance issues. When Monaghan was asked if Red Bull had finalized the direction it wants to pursue for the 2025 car, he said:

“I could turn around to you and say yes, but I guarantee everybody will be nervous before the first test next year.

“So, it’s not as if we didn’t know, even at mid-season, what we want to try and achieve with next year’s car.

“And next year’s car is compounded by the difficulties of the 2026 car. So, yes, we know what we want to do. At the moment, all the plans are in place.”

Even with significant performance gains on the 2025 car, Red Bull won’t truly know its competitiveness on the track until it can evaluate the progress made by rival teams. He explained:

“But again, it almost doesn’t matter.

“It’s what we do relative to our opposition.

“We know how much work we want to take on, what we want to try and achieve, and then we’ll see how much development work we need to put into it.

“We want to challenge next year’s championships, so it’s going to be quite a challenge on everybody within the skills of Red Bull Racing to achieve all our aims. But we’ll try.”

The reduced wind tunnel and CFD time would mean other teams get an edge over the reigning champions. But Monaghan prefers the Constructors' Championship win over the extra time lost in the wind tunnel. He said:

“Well, we’ve got slightly less than [the others].

“Ferrari and McLaren are quite close to us.

“If I then look at the difference down to, say, Haas or Williams, without being disrespectful to their performance to the middle of this season, they get a chunk more than us.

“It’s not necessarily about having just the time, it’s having the time and drawing something from it, which is part of the skill.

“So I can moan all I want; it’s not going to change the wind tunnel time and the CFD count that we get. That’s it.”

He added:

“Personally, my pride would be dented more than anything else, I suspect.

“Yes, we get a slight increase, but I’d rather retain the Constructors’ Championship than look at the time. That’s up to us.”