Missing the Bull’s Eye: Red Bull’s Recovery Heading Into Melbourne
Modesty, concession, acquiescence. Not words you often associate with Formula One racing. Yet, these words seem to explain the inside opinion on Red Bull heading into Melbourne. With a disappointing performance in the Bahrain pre-season testing, the anticipations are not optimistic for the first Grand Prix of the 2025 season. While there’s still time for technical refinement before the inaugural racing weekend, Red Bull seems to be violating the social rules of engagement of racing; that is, selling themselves short.
Max Verstappen told his home-country media point-blank, “I don’t think we can fight for the win already in Melbourne.”Strong words before the Grand Prix and hardly encouraging to fans. Yet, in light of the performance in Bahrain, Red Bull appears to think it wise to already manage expectations for the season opener. Reasons for the poor performance are varied, but popular opinions sight a disappointing vehicle evolution. The RB21 Challenger, which performed decisively behind both McLaren and Ferrari, underwent a serious overhaul compared to the previous year’s model. “I’m not as happy as I could be because the car did not respond how we wanted at times,” said Red Bull Technical Director Pierre Wache, “and it’s something we need to work on for the first race and future development.” Whether or not there is enough time left to work on said developments remains to be seen on the Melbourne track.
With only a short glance at the cars in Bahrain, we don’t know for certain the full capacities hiding beneath the liveries. We do know, however, that compared to comments made of the RB19 and RB20, this year’s developments have not gotten the same vote of confidence. Wache has further discussed the rehaul that took place underneath the car’s exterior, commenting on differences in how the vehicle will generate power and maneuver it. Red Bull historically places a lot of faith in its pre-season testing runs, and could very well simply be uncomfortable with the risk of still figuring out the car come race day. Luckily, all that might be needed to solve this issue is the races themselves, giving Red Bull the time and data to work with their new model; the price of losses early on could make for incredible rewards later in the season. The question is, will it be in time before the Championship is taken by somebody else?
