Red Bull breakthrough secrets uncovered as Verstappen promised ‘something up our sleeve’
Continuous effort has transformed the RB21's consistency, and Red Bull may have more updates to come.
Red Bull’s Paul Monaghan believes the team’s improvements stem from a much broader picture than singular updates introduced to the RB21.
Red Bull’s 2025 car has improved in consistency dramatically in recent races, rewarding the team with multiple victories and a resurgent Drivers’ Championship bid with Max Verstappen.
Paul Monaghan: Red Bull’s improvement not down to just one thing
The potential of the RB21 has been evident throughout the season, with victories in Japan and Imola propped up by pole positions at multiple races, including an impressive display at Silverstone where he romped to top spot with a low-downforce Monza-specification rear wing.
But unlocking the consistency to make the car more balanced and compliant on a regular basis has been a task Red Bull only appears to have got on top of in recent months, particularly after a floor update introduced at Monza coincided with a particularly bright spell of results for Verstappen, including an immediate victory at the Italian Grand Prix.
While Verstappen has hinted that the potential of the car remained frustratingly out of reach during the first half of the season, leading to a significant points deficit that means a fifth Drivers’ Championship title still remains difficult to achieve, Red Bull’s chief engineer Paul Monaghan believes that the current run of form is down to consistent and steady improvements throughout the year, rather than being due to singular, impactful, updates.
“I think there are many things come together. I don’t mean to contradict Max, I don’t know exactly what he has said,” he told mediaincluding PlanetF1.com at the Mexico City Grand Prix.
“A lot of work went in, even from the very early races of this season, to try and give ourselves a better car.
“We thought we’d identified what was wrong, and it took us a couple of steps to really get to that and not just take a load of downforce out of the car.
“So the combination of things, as we arrived towards Monza, was that the car has been a lot better, but I wouldn’t have said it’s one thing in isolation.
“It’s not one or two setup items. It’s not necessarily some bodywork geometries. Many things happened in the right order. We might be disappointed with the timing of them. That’s life.
“Don’t forget, we were on pole at Silverstone with the Monza wing. So, how do you want to judge that one versus going to Monza?
“The car got a little bit better again, and, fortunately, Monza was dry and not wet like Silverstone.”
Aside from the United States Grand Prix, Red Bull has shown up with tweaks and revisions, of varying magnitude, for the RB21 at every weekend; this is in stark contrast to McLaren’s MCL39, which has remained broadly static since the summer.
With four race weekends remaining and precious little time to glean reward from further upgrade efforts, will the RB21 further evolve between now and the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix?
“Never say never,” Monaghan said.
“But there might be one or two tiny things that we can do if we find that we can accommodate, but they’ll be of that nature from this point onwards.”
Monaghan’s hints tie in with recent comments from Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko, who told Austria’s OE24 that “we still have something up our sleeves. I don’t know exactly when it will come.”
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Paul Monaghan: Red Bull couldn’t run the car in early season as we do now
Aside from aerodynamic development and the physical evolution of the car throughout this year, Monaghan also pointed to how the setup of the car has become easier to find.
Technical director Pierre Waché explained to PlanetF1.com in pre-season testing that a key intent with the RB21 had been to create a wider operating window of performance.
Initially, this doesn’t appear to have been achieved, but Monaghan said things have vastly improved in this area since the opening races of this season.
“Setup is evolving much like the car and the setup is perhaps more easily tuneable in the short term,” he said.
“The setup has gone in the direction that the bodywork geometry and the aerodynamic results suggested it should.
“We’re enjoying the benefits of that. Previously, if you came back to the first three or four races of the year, we probably couldn’t run the car as we do now.
“These cars are of such complexity now, and they’re such refined aerodynamic devices, that, if you get it wrong, you really do get it wrong. It all has to come together.
“It’s not going to be one item, all of it merges, and when we get it right, we can enjoy the kind of performance that we’ve had over the last few races.”
As for Verstappen, whose campaign has come back to life through a string of victories and podiums, Monaghan said he has seen the four-time World Champion respond positively to the challenge of revitalising Red Bull after a difficult start to the season.
“This has challenged him in a different way, because we’ve not presented with a car that was necessarily quick enough at all the events,” he said.
“But he was always of the view that the team is in it, therefore he’s in it, and he will help and contribute as much as he can to help pull us out of it.
“So he’s an extraordinary driver, and that is in and out of the car.
“He’s one of those mercurial ones that can help pull the team together. Not the sole part of it, he is very big part of it.”
Additional reporting by Elizabeth Blackstock.
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