Red Bull Racing CEO Christian Horner believes the practice session timesheets don’t accurately reflect their true pace. Speaking to Sky Sports F1, he acknowledged that while there are still areas to improve, the RB21 has more performance to unlock.
Max Verstappen finished fifth in FP1 and seventh in FP2, struggling to set competitive long-run lap times in the second session. Liam Lawson placed 16th and 17th in the two sessions, with a significant gap between the Red Bull drivers and their front-running rivals.
Horner admitted there’s room for improvement but insisted that the timesheets don’t tell the full story of the grid’s pecking order or Red Bull’s potential. However, he noted that Sunday’s expected rain could complicate their approach to balancing the qualifying and race setup.
Speaking on Sky Sports F1 after the free practice sessions in Melbourne, Horner said:
“There’s some areas we need to improve on. The timesheet isn’t a true representation of where everyone is, it’s an indication. With the prospect of rain, you have the dilemma on whether you focus on Sunday set-up or one-lap performance.”
Helmut Marko outlines the realistic expectations of Red Bull for the 2025 Australian GP weekend
Helmut Marko believes Red Bull could secure a second-row start for the 2025 Australian GP. Speaking to GP Blog, the veteran suggested the team could make further setup changes between FP2 and FP3 to close the gap to the front-runners. He estimated their current deficit to McLaren at around three-tenths of a second and acknowledged Ferrari’s competitiveness, predicting a tight pole battle between McLaren, Ferrari and Red Bull.
Yuki Tsunoda put Red Bull’s junior team, VCARB, fourth fastest on the timesheets. When jokingly asked if Verstappen needed to switch cars, Marko downplayed the result, suggesting the Racing Bulls were running lighter fuel loads. He added that Red Bull would need to reduce fuel and switch to a higher power mode to keep Verstappen happy.
Asked if Verstappen needed to switch to their junior team which was quicker than them, Marko said:
“No. We just should take out some fuel and put the power on.”
Speaking about their current performance in the practice sessions, he added:
“Not only, but the performance of the car this morning was better. So the changes we did, the car was more nervous, was going from under to oversteer. So we can’t do the times of McLaren. I guess we are two, three tenths behind. So I guess the maximum tomorrow is row two.”
Asked if he was concerned that Verstappen was unable to do good long runs on the medium compound, Marko replied:
“No. The fastest lap from him was twenty one five. So that is exactly three-tenths off from the fastest time from Norris, but we believe we could make a better setup for tomorrow.”
Asked about Ferrari’s pace, Marko said:
“They are also fast, especially Leclerc. And, as I said, behind McLaren, it will be very tight between Mercedes, Ferrari, and us.”
After the free practice sessions, Red Bull found themselves well off the pace of rivals McLaren and Ferrari, trailing closer to the midfield and even behind their junior team, Racing Bulls. However, the Milton Keynes squad has a history of turning around its performance between FP2 and FP3. The challenge in 2025, though, is that they struggled in pre-season testing, completing one of the least mileage counts among the top teams.
After slipping to third in the 2024 Constructors’ championship, Red Bull faces mounting pressure to recover from past setbacks. A strong response this weekend will be crucial in proving they can bounce back.
Edited by Luke Koshi
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