Red Bull will bring upgrades to its RB21 for the Formula 1 Emilia Romagna Grand Prix, after a Miami race weekend which advisor Helmut Marko branded “depressing”.
The team has, by its own high standards, endured a poor start to the 2025 campaign, with a solitary victory for Max Verstappen at Suzuka last month.
All the other races have been dominated by McLaren, which currently sit 141 points ahead of the Milton Keynes-based squad in the Constructors’ Championship.
The weekend in Miami saw signs of progress for Red Bull, with Verstappen, whose RB21 was equipped with a revised floor, taking a mesmeric pole position.
However, as predicted, the McLarens’ superior race pace told in the end, with eventual winner Oscar Piastri finishing almost 40 seconds ahead of Verstappen in fourth.
Marko gave the performance a damning summary after the race, telling Motorsport.com: “The main conclusion is we are too slow.
“We saw when they were driving flat out, we are seven tenths of a second behind. We saw the real speed for the first time.”
“We have to find some performance straight away, but it was depressing how quick the McLarens really are.”
Marko questions if new Red Bull parts will close gap
Red Bull has already altered the RB21 this season, tweaking its engine cover and bringing two new floor components to Miami.
However, the team is viewing the upcoming upgrades at Imola as make-or-break, along with the clampdown on flexible front wings in Spain two rounds later.
Marko was realistic about the team’s chances of realistically getting close to McLaren, saying of the upgrades: “It has to [be enough to work], but such a big step is difficult to catch up.”
The Austrian also told OE24 that McLaren’s MCL39 is “an incredible car, very powerful in its complexity,” adding: “We have to be honest, Max only got pole position because both McLaren drivers and [Andrea Kimi] Antonelli in the Mercedes made mistakes in their last attempt.”
Red Bull’s only realistic chances of closing its gap to McLaren are in races where the circuit’s layout is kinder to the RB21, or if the temperatures are cooler, given that the MCL39’s tyres deal with hotter weather better than its rivals.
With current forecasts predicting an average of 21 degrees in Imola, Red Bull could fancy its chances as long as the new parts give its car a much-needed leg-up.
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