Red Bull is set to see out the F1 2025 season with much the same car it had at the Hungarian Grand Prix.
New team boss, Laurent Mekies, has confessed that the RB21 raced by Max Verstappen and Yuki Tsunoda will receive only “minimal” upgrades for the balance of the season.
Laurent Mekies: Minimal development for remainder of F1 2025
Additional reporting by Thomas Maher
Red Bull has slipped to fourth in the Constructors’ Championship, more than 40 points adrift of third-placed Mercedes.
Of its 194 points, 187 have been scored by Verstappen, who has carried the team much as he did through F1 2024.
While the Dutchman was able to wrestle his car in the early race last season to establish an unassailable advantage in the drivers’ championship, that has not been the case this time around.
The RB21 has proved a difficult beast to tame, even allowing for Verstappen claiming two race wins, with Mekies suggesting it’s unlikely to get much better before the season is out.
“The season is still very long,” he told the media, including PlanetF1.com.
“Even if car development is going to heavily slow down, or is pretty much going to be minimal from now on, we still have a lot of things we can learn.”
That includes lessons born from a disappointing Hungarian Grand Prix, where Verstappen was capable of only ninth and Tsunoda 17th as the squad struggled for pace across the weekend.
However, the underwhelming Hungarian GP isn’t necessarily indicative of the season to date, nor necessarily representative of how it might fare for the remainder of the season.
“We accept the fact that we are probably not very strong on a track like [the Hungaroring],” Mekies said.
“No question, McLaren are faster, but look at Spa, Max was able to fight, certainly on Saturday, and surprise everyone in the sprint.
“If we are able to extract a bit more of the car thanks to weekends like [Hungary], then hopefully we can put a better fight.”
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Like all teams, Red Bull has begun heavily channelling its resources into the development of next year’s car.
A radical regulation change will see an increased focus on hybrid energy from the power units, with a 50:50 split with the internal combustion engine.
Chassis design will also change, with ground effects set to disappear in favour of a return to flat floors, and the introduction of moveable aerodynamic devices.
With limited resources available owing to F1’s financial regulations, most teams have elected to put the remainder of F1 2025 on the backburner and instead focus their efforts on next season in the hope they either get the jump on the opposition – or at least don’t get left behind.
For Red Bull, it’s an even greater task as it steps up its F1 project to become a power unit manufacturer, in partnership with Ford, for the first time.
The relationship between the F1 operation and the American automaker has increased beyond what was initially scoped for.
Having initially joined forces with a view to the hybrid and battery systems, Ford’s motorsport boss Mark Rushbrook revealed in an interview with Motorsport aktuell that the partnership has expanded.
“We wanted to learn about electrification: battery cell chemistry, motors, inverters, calibration, control and how everything interacts with the combustion engine. We wanted to learn about optimising fuel efficiency,” Rushbrook said.
“Initially, we didn’t want to be so involved in combustion engines, but now we are because we obviously still have a lot to learn in this area. Here, we mainly help with the production of parts. So now we are involved in almost the entire car – and also on the operational side.”
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