One of the biggest questions hanging over the 2025 season is when teams will start looking ahead to 2026. For some teams, it’s an easy call—they won’t be fighting for championships anyway. But for the top teams? That’s where it gets complicated.
Peter Windsor recently shared some interesting thoughts about Red Bull Racing and Max Verstappen‘s approach on his YouTube channel.
“Red Bull doesn’t seem to have done anything too radical to the car,” Windsor explained. “It wasn’t that far off last season, just inconsistent in the second half of the year.”
The car showed flashes of brilliance at times, especially in wet conditions with Verstappen behind the wheel. But it struggled for consistency.
“It was quick, periodically, obviously very good in the wet, but in the hands of Max. But equally, it was not bad in others and hopefully, where it’s not bad, it’s now much better.”
## The RB21 and budget considerations
When discussing the new RB21, Windsor noted some interesting technical choices that might reveal Red Bull’s bigger strategy.
“You’d imagine it would be knowing Red Bull,” he said. “They’ve gone to these different intercoolers because they’re cheaper to run or make. It’s part of the budget thing.”
This points to a fascinating possibility: Red Bull might be saving resources for their 2026 car while focusing mainly on helping Verstappen win another drivers’ championship.
“They’re putting everything they can into the 2026 car and only going to focus on the driver’s championship. But, you know, if they’re doing that, that’s quite clever if they can pull that off.”
## The danger of overthinking
Windsor thinks this kind of strategic thinking could backfire.
“To me, that’s almost like playing with fire,” he warned. “You start trying to think too much about it. ‘Oh, we’ll really go for the drivers’ title but not the constructors. We’ll try and qualify second because of inside on the first corner.'”
He believes the best approach is much simpler.
“As soon as you start getting down to details like that, it almost always goes wrong, in my opinion. It usually does. You just try and win every race and get on with it. And I think that’s what Max will do.”
That’s probably smart. Verstappen isn’t known for holding back or playing the long game. He races to win, every single time.
