If there’s a car that embodies chaos in the 2025 grid, it’s Red Bull’s RB21. Fast? Unquestionably. Consistent? Not even close. While Max Verstappen has still managed to wrestle out a win and pole positions, the RB21 has proven to be a technical diva—demanding to drive, difficult to predict, and draining to tame.
Despite flashes of brilliance, Red Bull finds itself facing a rare uphill battle. The team’s position as the sport’s apex predator is under threat—and the animal they’re wrestling may be their own creation.
Speed Without Stability
The RB21 might be the quickest car over a single lap, but its race pace often tells a different story. Verstappen has been forced to wrestle with a car that changes personality depending on tire life, track temperature, and even corner sequence. The team seems to have engineered a machine that walks a performance tightrope—rewarding perfection and punishing even minor deviations.
From an outside perspective, the car behaves like a Jekyll-and-Hyde machine. Some weekends, it’s sublime. Others, it borders on undriveable. This erratic nature has eroded Verstappen’s confidence during stints and made it difficult for Red Bull to manage races strategically.
This isn’t just about setup windows—it’s a deeper structural issue, likely tied to inconsistent aerodynamic balance and an underlying mismatch between wind tunnel modeling and on-track behavior. In fact, Red Bull has admitted that their aging wind tunnel is giving them outdated feedback, a flaw that’s now showing up in the heat of battle.
Marko’s Eternal Optimism—and the Imola Hope
Red Bull’s Helmut Marko has expressed cautious optimism about upgrades scheduled for Imola. He believes the team can bridge the gap to McLaren, which now looks like the most complete package on the grid. Christian Horner has echoed that sentiment but added that Red Bull’s development curve will require both precision and patience.
That said, this is hardly the first time Red Bull has pinned its hopes on Imola. The recurring narrative of “just wait until Imola” has become a seasonal refrain for the team—though this time, the stakes are undeniably higher.
There’s a growing sense that Red Bull may have overestimated the RB21’s margin for dominance and underestimated how fast the rest of the grid—especially McLaren—would catch up. Complacency in facility upgrades may have contributed, with signs pointing to a developmental hangover from the cost cap era.
Max’s Feedback and the Tsunoda Factor
Verstappen hasn’t been shy about the RB21’s limitations. While praising its raw speed, he’s repeatedly pointed out how unpredictable the car feels mid-corner and how difficult it is to extract consistent performance across stints. This instability under braking and corner transitions has been a stark contrast to McLaren’s planted, confidence-inspiring setup.
The decision to promote Yuki Tsunoda to the main team in place of Liam Lawson appears to be paying off in one key area: technical feedback. Tsunoda has adapted surprisingly well to the RB21’s quirks and is helping the team better understand its erratic behavior. His ability to push the car while keeping it under control is giving Red Bull much-needed additional data points—and a driver pairing that’s far more complementary than initially expected.
A Pivotal Few Weeks Ahead
Red Bull’s story this season isn’t about falling off the cliff—it’s about walking the edge of one. The RB21 is still a title-capable machine in the right hands and with the right updates. But every race where its full potential isn’t unlocked, the gap to McLaren widens.
The next few races will determine whether Red Bull can reclaim its footing or whether the RB21 will go down as one of the team’s most volatile creations—blessed with speed, cursed with temperament.
Imola isn’t just a target anymore. It’s a lifeline.