Red Bull

Having got knocked out in Q2 for the season opener in Bahrain, Perez made amends by out-qualifying teammate Max Verstappen at Imola to secure his best ever grid slot.<br>While Perez was hired to be a closer match to Verstappen, Red Bull motorsport advisor Helmut Marko says the team never expected him to do so well so quickly after the difficulties he faced in Bahrain.<br>“Perez's improvement was ...

read on

In only his second event for Red Bull, Perez out-qualified teammate Max Verstappen and felt he actually lost pole at Imola to Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton with a mistake in the final corners of his last Q3 lap. <br>Perez had trailed Verstappen by 0.593s in FP3 – the only practice session both Red Bull drivers completed after the former collided with Esteban Ocon in FP1 and ...

read on

Mercedes driver Hamilton upset the formbook to clinch pole position ahead of Sergio Perez and Max Verstappen, who both made mistakes on their final Q3 laps at Imola and missed their own respective chances to head the grid. <br>Perez is starting on the soft compound tyres after he and Red Bull opted to prioritise ensuring a Q3 berth over using the medium tyres in ...

read on

With Red Bull having had the pace advantage in Bahrain, and topping final free practice at Imola, Hamilton was bracing himself for losing out to either Max Verstappen or Sergio Perez.<br>However, a great performance from the world champion, allied to mistakes from both Red Bull drivers on their final Q3 laps, meant Hamilton took the top spot on Saturday.<br>Hamilton ended up just 0.035 seconds ...

read on

Verstappen had been tipped as the pre-event favourite for the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix after only narrowly losing out to Lewis Hamilton in Bahrain three weeks ago.<br>But after narrowly trailing both Mercedes drivers in FP1 at Imola, Verstappen suffered a setback early in second practice when he was forced to park up at the side of the track at pit exit following a loss of power.<br>It brought ...

read on

In recent seasons, Red Bull has selected contra-tyre strategy approaches in the middle phase of qualifying to try and gain an upper hand in race strategy versus Mercedes during the Black Arrows' years of dominance.<br>This approach helped Red Bull beat Mercedes in 2020's 70th Anniversary Grand Prix – where Max Verstappen used tyres that were a step harder compared to the Mercedes cars to gain an ...

read on

In recent years, there has been a slow march forward in the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) as teams lean on computers more and more to try to make sense of the teraflops of data they now amass each and every weekend.<br>But the need to become much more efficient in dealing with data has ramped up massively as the cost cap bites – especially for the big outfits that ...

read on

But amid the disappointment felt on the Red Bull pit wall in the aftermath of Max Verstappen’s defeat to Lewis Hamilton, there was an underlying optimism that this could be its best chance of a title assault in nine seasons.<br>Hamilton may have outfoxed Verstappen in the closing stages with his defence at Turn 4, taking advantage of the change in policing to track limits instigated by Red Bull ...

read on

McLaren finished third in last year's constructors' championship and the Woking outfit is tipped to confirm its status as best of the rest behind Red Bull and Mercedes in 2021.<br>While McLaren drivers Daniel Ricciardo and Norris qualified sixth and seventh respectively in Bahrain, behind a Ferrari and an AlphaTauri, Norris worked his way up to fourth as the highest finisher not driving for one of ...

read on

Mercedes endured a difficult pre-season test programme as the team struggled with rear-end instability on its new W12 car following the downforce cuts introduced for 2021.<br>Although Mercedes remained on the back foot over one lap in Bahrain, losing out to Red Bull's Max Verstappen in the fight for pole position, it fared much better over the long stints in the race.<br>Hamilton was able to ...

read on

The Japanese car manufacturer has entered its final season in F1 with an all-new power unit concept that partner Red Bull will take on to run itself in the future.<br>For the 2021 design, Honda has gone aggressive with its packaging and introduced some key changes to push the size boundaries that it famously tried before with its original ‘size zero’ engine with ...

read on

Verstappen claimed pole for F1’s 2021 season opener by 0.388-seconds and showed race-winning pace after leading the early stages of the Bahrain Grand Prix. <br>He ultimately lost out after Mercedes’ aggressive strategy got Hamilton ahead, and the world champion’s tyre management skills on a long final stint meant the Dutchman only had one late chance to pass, which ...

read on

The Japanese youngster marked himself out as a future star with a great showing at last weekend’s Bahrain Grand Prix.<br>He set the second fastest time in Q1 and finished inside the points in ninth place, having pulled off a great overtaking move on Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll on the final lap.<br>Tsunoda’s pace and the hype surrounding him has already prompted suggestions he could be in the ...

read on

Although Max Verstappen was beaten to victory in the F1 season opener by Lewis Hamilton’s Mercedes, Red Bull thinks the pace it showed throughout the Sakhir event has put it in the frame for a title challenge.<br>While Mercedes fears that Red Bull already has the edge in speed terms, the Milton Keynes-based team is planning an aggressive update plan to make its car even faster.<br>Red Bull’s ...

read on

In Bahrain he struggled on the medium tyre in Q2 and started 11th, and then in the race he charged up to fifth after an engine issue on the formation lap saw him to start from the pitlane.<br>Red Bull motorsport boss Helmut Marko suggested that the Mexican was losing out to teammate Max Verstappen in a couple of places at Sakhir in qualifying, notably Turn 1.<br>“The negative is that I lose the ...

read on

The Dutchman had headed into the Bahrain race as favourite for the victory, but ended up losing out to rival Lewis Hamilton after the world champion's Mercedes team went aggressive with its strategy.<br>But Red Bull's ability to respond to what Mercedes was doing was hampered by it not having the same number of tyre sets available.<br>While both Mercedes drivers had two sets of new hard tyres ...

read on

Perez triggered an aborted start when his car shut off during the formation lap and he coasted to a halt.<br>With no power, the Mexican couldn’t communicate with his team, which sent repeated "radio check” messages that went unanswered.<br>Despite his relative unfamiliarity with the car and the Honda power unit systems Perez was able to restore power after taking the steering wheel off and ...

read on

An aggressive strategy by the German car manufacturer, allied to some great tyre management and defensive driving from Lewis Hamilton, helped the world champion fend off Max Verstappen at Sakhir on Sunday.<br>But despite the joy of the win, which came off the back of a tricky pre-season test, Mercedes is in no doubt that any prior advantage it has had in F1 has been wiped away.<br>Mercedes ...

read on

Horner admitted to some frustration after the Bahrain race at the way he felt there was a lack of consistency and clear guidance over the policing of track limits at Turn 4.<br>While drivers had been told that anyone abusing the limits in qualifying would have their lap times deleted, for the race there was no such provision – so drivers were free to run wide there.<br>However, drivers had ...

read on

Verstappen gave Red Bull the first pole position of the 2021 season with a storming run to his fourth career pole at the Sakhir track on Saturday, finishing ahead of Mercedes duo Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas.<br>After climbing from his W12 following Mercedes' first season opener qualifying defeat in the turbo hybrid era, Hamilton said he "absolutely gave it everything I had, but unfortunately it ...

read on

The often unpredictable rear end of the RB16 proved a handful for both Max Verstappen and Alex Albon at times, but the evidence is clear that the RB16B is much more firmly planted.<br>Red Bull spent a large portion of last season focused on a rectification programme, as it discovered quite quickly that the RB16’s performance was flawed, owing to a correlation issue between its ...

read on

While the team is well aware that its chassis is not performing as it would like against its main F1 rival, it is also facing headaches in getting on top of its energy recovery systems for the season opener.<br>Team boss Toto Wolff reckoned that Mercedes was losing out to Honda in terms of its derating – which is when the engine boost that comes from its energy recovery systems runs out at the ...

read on

F1 bosses want to trial a sprint qualifying format at three races this season to see what impact it has on the television spectacle and the experience for fans at the track.<br>The idea is that at Silverstone, Monza and Interlagos, normal qualifying will be shifted to Friday afternoon, with a 100km sprint race on Saturday then deciding the final grid for the main race on Sunday.<br>While a lot of ...

read on

Lewis Hamilton took third in Friday's second practice session, two tenths behind Red Bull's Max Verstappen and one tenth shy of McLaren's Lando Norris, with teammate Valtteri Bottas two further spots behind.<br>But beyond single-lap pace, of which Friday practice painted an opaque picture, a bigger concern for Mercedes is the W12's recurring rear instability.<br>Hamilton and Bottas already ...

read on

While Verstappen topped both the sessions on Friday, Perez was sixth quickest in the afternoon and 10th overall in the evening. Both times he was just more than six tenths off his Dutch teammate.<br>Reflecting on his first day of official Formula 1 weekend action for Red Bull, Perez said the timesheets had exposed the fact that he wasn't fully at one with the RB16B when it came to single-lap form ...

read on