Red Bull Aims for Performance Enhancements to Compete with McLaren

Red Bull, the team of world champion Max Verstappen and Liam Lawson, is planning to introduce upgrades within three to five races to address its current performance deficit compared to McLaren, according to team advisor Helmut Marko. The team started the new season behind defending constructors’ champion , which demonstrated impressive form in the opening Australian Grand Prix.

Initial Season Performance Comparison

In the opening race, Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri locked out the front row with a three-tenth gap to Verstappen. During the race, the McLaren duo pulled away from Verstappen as Red Bull’s intermediate tyres started degrading. Although Verstappen’s new teammate Liam Lawson crashed out, and Piastri had a spin, allowing Verstappen to finish second behind Norris, this performance gap was still evident.

Marko acknowledged that tire wear was the most significant difference between the two teams at present, with upgrades in development to narrow the 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.”

Future Developments and Optimism

Marko expressed hope that these upgrades would be implemented within three to five races, allowing Red Bull to field a car on par with McLaren. Red Bull is under pressure to close the gap with its main rival before focus shifts to 2026’s all-new rules package.

Team principal Christian Horner believes that the 2025 machine has proven to be a more stable platform for development, and thinks optimizing the front-to-rear balance over the coming races will automatically cure some of its tire wear issues. “Yes, 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 gives us a good, dynamic platform to develop the car from through the season.”