Red Bull reveals F1 upgrade plan to catch McLaren

Red Bull is aiming to introduce upgrades within “three to five races” to cure its main deficit compared to McLaren, says team advisor Helmut Marko.

The team’s driver pairing of world champion Max Verstappen and his new stablemate Liam Lawson have started the season behind defending constructors’ champion McLaren, which had already been quickest in Bahrain testing and confirmed its form in the opening Australian Grand Prix.

Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri locked out the front row with a three-tenth gap to Verstappen and, in the race, the pair also drove away from the Dutchman once the Red Bull’s intermediate tyres started fading. But, while Lawson crashed out, a spin for Piastri allowed a resurgent Verstappen to finish second behind Norris and limit the damage.

Red Bull advisor Marko admitted afterwards that tyre wear was the biggest difference between the two teams right now, with upgrades in the pipeline to close that race pace gap.

“We knew from the tests in Bahrain that the McLarens were quite a bit faster than us,” Marko told Viaplay. “We reduced this advantage, I would say, from half a second to two or three tenths. We can follow them for six to eight laps, but then our tyre degradation comes earlier.

“That’s the main problem, with some other problems as well. But we know them, and they are working hard. In three to five races hopefully we can cure it, so that we have a car on the same level as the McLaren.”

Red Bull is against the clock to claw back some of its deficit compared to its main rival before focus will have to start shifting to 2026’s all-new rules package. That sounds easier said than done, given the team went in the wrong development direction around the same time last year and found it ever harder to balance the 2024 car until finding solutions later in the year.

However, team principal Christian Horner believes its 2025 machine has proven to be a more stable platform to develop from, and thinks optimising that front-to-rear balance over the coming races will automatically cure some of its tyre wear issues.

“When you have a car that’s well balanced, the whole world looks different,” he explained.

“This car’s characteristics are much calmer than the RB20. There aren’t the nasty snaps that there were on the RB20, so that that gives us a good, dynamic platform to develop the car from through the season.”