Red Bull Admits Hesitancy In Trusting Its Tools To Find Performance On 2025 F1 Car
![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 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](https://images2.minutemediacdn.com/image/upload/c_crop,w_3382,h_1902,x_87,y_1057/c_fill,w_720,ar_16:9,f_auto,q_auto,g_auto/images/ImagnImages/mmsport/f1briefings/01jjpv6f4zeeh5p50qqc.jpg)
Red Bull technical director Pierre Wache has admitted that the team no longer fully trusts the tools used to extract performance from the 2025 RB21 F1 car.
The confidence problem arrived after Red Bull experienced balance problems on the RB20 last year, arising out of correlation issues. Wache acknowledged that while Red Bull could tap into different areas of the car to unlock further performance this year, he remains doubtful about the accuracy of results the tools will provide, which he thinks is a "dangerous" thing to happen.
Although Red Bull made a strong start to 2024, with Max Verstappen winning 7 of the first 10 Grands Prix, the RB20 began to exhibit balance issues, ultimately causing both Sergio Perez and Verstappen to experience handling problems, including understeer. The challenge offered a considerable advantage to McLaren, which surpassed Red Bull in the Constructors' Championship to win the title for the first time since 1998.
It wasn't until the United States Grand Prix that Red Bull managed to mitigate the damage, helping Verstappen win his fourth championship title, which had been under threat from Lando Norris. One of the team's tools includes its 70-year-old wind tunnel, but it won't be until 2027 that it can begin using its new state-of-the-art wind tunnel, currently under development. Suggesting that it could get trickier to find more performance on the 2025 car, Wache told Autosport:
“When you have a correlation issue, then for sure you are a little bit lost. You cannot trust your tools any more.
“And when you cannot trust your tools any more, then you have to find a way to modify your tools to find that correlation again.
“Then you are lost in terms of having doubts about everything you are doing. It is not being lost, but you have doubts about the results that your tools give you.”
Wache explained that as the F1 grid gets tighter by the year, teams begin to look for tiny performance gains on the car. But with tools that can't be relied upon, it becomes challenging to see how the changes would affect the car's aerodynamics. He added:
“When you have the same type of regulations for a certain period of time, then the gains you have start to be very minor and the accuracy requirements are even higher.
“You are looking for small things. On the aero side, and it’s the same on the suspension side, you are looking for two or three downforce points inside the floor, the bodywork, etc.
“That will affect the rest of the car and also some areas that you didn’t test in the wind tunnel, purely because you cannot test them in CFD.
“It is at this stage that it starts becoming dangerous.
“The delta [performance gain] you try to find is small, and secondly you have a correlation issue because you can’t reproduce some physics.”
Addressing McLaren's resurgence, Wache explained that Red Bull will be unable to find that kind of performance gain the Papaya outfit showcased in 2024. He said:
“At the beginning of the year they were completely nowhere.
"The year before they were completely nowhere. In 2022, they were completely nowhere.
“McLaren produced a car that is good since Miami. During the 2.5 years before they were not impressive.
“I don’t know where they are, but above all I don’t know why they didn’t find performance before, if that was due to the correlation or due to something else, I am not in their team.”
He added:
“But the result for us is that it is more difficult to find extra performance now, even more with the tools that we have available to us."