Red Bull has insisted that the team hasn’t adopted a “defeatist” approach towards the F1 title in 2025, despite a scheduled meeting about the gap to McLaren.
I don’t know man. They’ve won 4 WDC in a row, the gap to McLaren is massive and the RBR is both kinda slow and difficult as all hell to drive - and it’s the last year of a set of regulations. Isn’t the logical move here to just abandon ship and go all in on the 2026 regs? I can understand McLaren going full bore since they have to strike while the iron is hot and they desperately want a WDC (no matter how much they try to claim the WCC is “more important”). And I can also understand Ferrari wanting to go hard this year as Lewis has limited shelf life.
But who knows, maybe the rumours about the RBPT engine project not progressing well are true and they’re not hopeful about 2026 either?
Personally I think that Redbull should divert all their attention to 26 so they can try to nail the 2026 regs. If they fuck those up Max is for sure going to leave at the end of his contract and then what will they have?
They lost Adrian Newey already. They lost Honda.
If they lose Max they are going to have a bunch of drivers piling up that can’t seem to drive the car and nothing to show for it.
That’s my thinking as well. Nailing the '26 regs is magnitudes more important than trying to play catch-up this year. Had they come out the gates swinging this year trading blows with McLaren then sure, go for it. But they’re quite comfortably the 4th best car right now. Seems foolish to waste resources on this year when the new regs beckon.
I mean you never know. Maybe it’ll only take them a month to give Max a car capable of being at the front again.
At the end of the day I just want good racing and if everyone packs up and turns to 2026 by race 3 then the season is a gonna be a snore while McLaren fuck off into the lead each race.
I’m torn between my enjoyment of close racing and my hopes that Max can somehow become the first guy to get not only 8 championships but also 8 championships in a row.
I know that’s basically a pipe dream right now given the car and the lack of a supporting second driver at red bull right now, but a man can dream
With Piastri being an excellent driver who seems to have taken another step this season I think we’re getting a title fight no matter what. At least for as long as they’re close enough that McLaren can’t justify team orders. I would have preferred a 4 team battle for the championship, but it is at least better than 2023.
Yeah McLaren is gonna have a real Mercedes 2016 on their hands if they aren’t careful with those two. Idk if either of them will listen to them order if push comes to shove. Clearly Piastri is quite close to Norris in terms of pace. I think if it is only McLaren fighting in the championship this year it’ll be whoever can be more consistent that’s going to win.
I’m sticking out my neck and saying I think Oscar has a better shot. I think his ceiling has always been higher than Lando’s and I think he is stronger mentally. His pace and racecraft have always been superb, his issues were tyre management and qualy and he seems to have addressed both.
It would also be quite amusing if either Max or George takes it on sheer consistency - becoming the first F1 champion without winning a single race.
Crazy that it’s never happened before. That would be a super entertaining way to win a championship. Just always lurking behind the race winners slowly stacking those points as they take turns taking each other out lol
