Month: February 2025

Red Bull Racing has revealed their 2025 Formula 1 challenger, the RB21, prior to the pre-season test at Bahrain.

This is the car that Max Verstappen hopes will lead to a fifth consecutive drivers’ title.

Ahead of Formula 1’s three-day winter test, Red Bull unveil its updated car design for the upcoming season, the final one under the current ground-effect based regulations cycle that will be driven by Verstappen and his new teammate Liam Lawson.

Sporting a very similar livery to last season’s car, which had already been revealed at F1 75 launch in London, the RB21 is an evolution of the RB20 and has undergone a variety of changes to address the car balance issues that plagued its predecessor, although the low-light studio images released by the team still carefully kept most of its secrets hidden from view.

Verstappen and Red Bull started the 2024 season in dominant form, but as McLaren caught up and then overtook, Verstappen and especially teammate Sergio Perez started to struggle much more with balance problems on the RB20.

It took until the Italian Grand Prix for Red Bull to gain a deeper understanding of where it had gone wrong, but by that time it was too late to avoid slipping to third behind McLaren and Ferrari in the constructors’ standings.

According to technical director Pierre Wache, Red Bull has been hard at work to make its new car easier to balance and set up, but without compromising the car’s peak performance potential.

“The main thing that you are trying to achieve is a balance between making a car that is quicker than the others and making it nice to drive so that drivers can extract the most from it,” Wache said. “You know that if you increase the [operating] window you also reduce the overall potential.

“In 2023 we were proved that our direction was correct because we were quicker than the others. Last season we were proved that we were not correct. Every time there is a limit when the balance takes the benefit compared to the overall potential of the car. We have to fix it for this year.”

Going to be interesting if this car has the speed to match their rivals especially McLaren and Ferrari.

Alpine’s new 2025 Formula 1 racer was revealed in a shakedown ahead of the new season at the Bahrain International Circuit.

Officially a filming day, the test was run over a maximum of 200km (124 miles) with demonstration tyres, as per the regulations.

Both Pierre Gasly and his new, rookie teammate Jack Doohan got a first taste of the A525, with the day “split evenly” between them, team principal Oliver Oakes said.

Alpine had previously revealed its latest blue-and-pink livery at the F175 Live event in London, but now we see the actual 2025 car.

“It is only a shakedown, limited running, so it’s not like we are driving the car at its full potential, but the initial feeling felt smooth, and I am just looking forward to getting going and having a proper run later this week for official pre-season testing,” Gasly commented.

Alpine revealed its line-up for the upcoming pre-season running, which will also take place in Bahrain this week. Gasly and Doohan will share the track on all three days.

“It will be three busy days where we have many things to run through in order to develop the A525 ahead of the season start,” Doohan said, while Oakes mentioned “multiple areas of interest for us to keep learning and progressing”.

Gasly previously gave Alpine an ambitious top-five goal in the 2025 constructors’ championship, which would require the squad to be the ‘best of the rest’ behind the four established top teams.

Aston Martin becomes the latest Formula 1 team to show off their definitive 2025 racer, after revealing its livery at the F1 75 Live event earlier.

These are the first images of the AMR25 which features much changed sidepods compared to its predecessor than the AMR24. While unlike Ferrari, Aston Martin has stuck with a pushrod front suspension and the British outfit has also applied this arrangement at the rear of its machines.

The AMR25 features a largely unchanged livery from 2024, having been first disclosed along with the colour schemes for the other nine Formula 1 outfits at F175.

It comes after a disappointing year for Aston Martin, as it finished fifth in the 2024 constructors’ standings with no podiums having claimed eight of them in 2023.

“We learnt a lot in 2024 and the team have been using that as a driving force as we head into this season with the AMR25,” said its driver Fernando Alonso.

“The competition is going to be very tight in the last year of the current regulations, but I know the team have been working hard at the AMRTC to make sure we are ready.”

His teammate Lance Stroll added: “Everyone at the AMRTC has put in a lot of work over the winter to improve for 2025. As a team, we all want to perform well and we will continue to learn over the course of the year.

“What we are building here is such an exciting project with great tools and talented people, and 2025 is a key year for us to make progress.”

Aston Martin views the upcoming campaign as one where it must demonstrate to owner Lawrence Stroll that it will not go backwards having fallen away since the start of 2023 and in the AMR25 that its technical team has taken onboard the feedback from Alonso and Stroll Jr.

In particular, the team has wanted to address the low-speed corner handling and through-corner balance for its drivers.

The AMR25 is also the first Aston Martin to really benefit from the team’s rebuilt and expanded factory situated across the road from British Grand Prix venue, Silverstone.

At F1 75, new team boss Andy Cowell – the ultra-successful ex-Mercedes engine chief – was keen to highlight to the assembled media that the reworked factory has meant the AMR25 spent longer being designed before going into production compared to its predecessors.

This should benefit Aston Martin in its new design being that bit more mature regarding its development before even being assembled for the first time.

Alonso and Stroll will complete a filming day with the AMR25 on Monday – alongside Mercedes and its W16 challenger – in Bahrain ahead of 2025 pre-season testing starting at the Sakhir track on the 26-28 February.

To celebrate the 75th anniversary of the Formula 1 World Championship, a special launch event was held at London’s The O2 arena featuring all ten teams taking part in the 2025 season. Each outfit revealed their liveries for the upcoming campaign in front of a live audience.

Sauber finished last in the previous season’s championship so went first with McLaren as the constructors’ champions being the last team to show its colours.

Have to say, the best livery is definitely the Racing Bulls, following a rebrand from Visa Cash App RB. The while look is very similar to what Red Bull ran at the Turkish Grand Prix back in 2021.

Not a fan of the white engine cover on the Ferrari and yet very cool to see the number 44. So much hype is surrounding the Scuderia as the seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton is driving for this team in the upcoming season.

As for Red Bull, McLaren and Mercedes. Very similar colour scheme from the past year. Going to be fascinating how close the competition will be between these top trio.

Regarding the other cars which were revealed in the event, the Alpine looks nice with the extra pink and blue. Haas has tweaked their familiar black, red and white livery. The Williams is very blue! As for the Sauber, it feels like an Xbox-branded racing car. At least it was an upgrade from last year’s green and black stripes.

The best-looking is definitely the Racing Bulls. Very white and yet love the little detail especially the mini Red Bull icons at the back of the car. Stylish.