Red Bull Racing’s ability to transform their car’s performance overnight in Qatar shows why they’re still the team to beat in Formula 1.
Max Verstappen struggled to keep pace with Nico Hulkenberg‘s Haas during Saturday’s sprint race, but then dominated Sunday’s main event. How did they pull off such a dramatic turnaround?
Former F1 driver Christijan Albers thinks he knows the secret.
"Red Bull’s engineering team is simply the best at analyzing and fine-tuning their car," Albers told the Telegraaf podcast. "They’re willing to sacrifice one driver’s setup to test different solutions."
That’s exactly what happened in Qatar. The team used Sergio Perez‘s car to experiment with different settings, which helped them nail the perfect setup for Sunday’s race.
But it’s not just about trying random changes.
"You might have a hundred different ideas to make the car faster, but you can only test a few," Albers explained. "You need both luck and skill to pick the right ones."
He pointed out that other teams, including McLaren, can’t match Red Bull’s rapid development pace during race weekends.
"McLaren just doesn’t improve through the weekend like Red Bull does. They don’t find that extra speed," he said.
Many worried Red Bull would lose this advantage when legendary designer Adrian Newey stepped back from his full-time role. But the team has proved they can still optimize their car better than anyone else.
"Their engineers are absolutely top-notch at getting the maximum from the car’s setup," Albers said. "The only limitation is time – they can’t always try everything they want to."
This ability to transform their car’s performance overnight might be the key difference that keeps Red Bull ahead of their rivals, even as other teams close the gap.
