RB21 “subtly different”, Ferrari stand out as cars converge

Ferrari appears to have pursued a different approach with its 2025 car than several of its rivals, says Red Bull team principal Christian Horner.

He described Red Bull’s new RB21 as an extensive but subtle evolution of last year’s car, which the team struggled with at times. In the fourth year of largely unchanged technical regulations, teams’ designs are increasingly similar.

“It’s clear that the cars have converged and they look very, very similar,” said Horner. “I think, probably, Ferrari is a standout as probably being a differentiator.

“But it’s inevitable that marginal gains are going to be there. Every surface on our car is different to last year, it just looks similar because it’s a similar philosophy. And you can see other cars have converged with that.”

Max Verstappen, Red Bull, Bahrain International Circuit, 2025 pre-season test — Red Bull’s car is outwardly similar but heavily revised

Red Bull began last season as they finished the year before, winning seven of the first 10 races. However they found it increasingly difficult to develop their car further and fell to third place in the constructors’ championship behind McLaren and Ferrari.

Horner pointed out they still won the most races of any team last year, and the RB20 served as a good starting point for development.

“I think we’ve just got to improve across some of the characteristics of last year’s car,” he said. “The team [have] worked very hard on that over the over the off-season.

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“Let’s not forget we still won nine [grands prix] and four sprint races with that car last year so we had a reasonable basis from which to develop.

“But the competition is is very tight and, of course, in the last year of this set of regulations, you can see the convergence. The cars all look incredibly similar today and I think it’s going to be very, very competitive throughout the season from the first race all the way through the season.”

“We’ve had a good winter,” he added. “This car, whilst it doesn’t look a huge amount visibly different to last year’s car, is subtly different in many different areas and particularly in the areas that you can’t see.”

Red Bull do not intend to introduce any significant changes to the car before the new season begins in Australia next month.

“It’s basically the car that will start the season,” said Horner. “There may be some subtle changes introduced between now and then, but fundamentally it’s what we’ll be taking to Melbourne.”

The team’s new driver Liam Lawson had a brief spin during his stint yesterday, which Horner blamed on the blustery conditions at the track.

“The wind is pretty tricky out there and I think it just caught Liam out on the exit of turn two. We’ve seen a lot of cars having different moments as the gusts are pretty strong out there. But I think Liam’s had a good first official session for us and settled in well so far.”