Formula 1 pre-season testing for the 2025 season hasn’t gone as smoothly as Red Bull Racing would have liked.
Although Max Verstappen wasn’t scheduled to drive Red Bull’s new RB21 on Thursday, his new teammate Liam Lawson probably didn’t expect to spend as much time off the track as he did in the morning.
A water pressure issue in the car’s engine meant that Lawson was in the pits for over an hour before the lunch break with engineers and mechanics hard at work trying to fix the problem.
Red Bull confirm a loss of engine water pressure. on Liam Lawson’s car.
Team are working hard on rectifying to get back out asap. #F1 #F1Testing
— Thomas Maher (@thomasmaheronf1) February 27, 2025
Sergio Perez faced a similar dilemma last year when he too couldn’t spend as much time behind the wheel of the car as he would have liked and the young New Zealander will hope that’s not a bad omen heading into this year.
Lawson had complaints about the Red Bull after his first run on Wednesday but whether they impact Verstappen is yet to be seen.
He has a habit of being able to drive around problems that others struggle with and over the years, Red Bull have deliberately desired their car to emphasise his strengths, making life increasingly more difficult for his teammates.
However, last year, Red Bull still slipped behind the likes of McLaren and Ferrari in the pecking order, with one complaint, in particular, falling on deaf ears within the sport’s rule-makers.
Ted Kravitz, covering pre-season testing for Sky Sports F1, anticipates that Red Bull will be pleased with a change regarding front wings being introduced midway through the 2025 campaign.
New front wing rules will play into Red Bull and Max Verstappen’s hands ‘very nicely’ according to Ted Kravitz
Kravitz was asked to explain the upcoming rule change regarding the front wings and said: “Mercedes did it, McLaren did it, Ferrari did it. Red Bull, who are not strangers to aeroelasticity in recent Formula 1 times have said, ‘Well, hang on, we haven’t designed our car around that kind of concept’, and that’s why when they tried it, it didn’t really work with their car.
“But, this rule change might well play into Red Bull Racing’s hands very nicely if when we get to the Spanish Grand Prix and the new front wings that everybody is going to have to bring have less elasticity in it, we might see a different rung of the pecking order.
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“But that’s something that’s very much on the team’s minds and I was interested to see that aero rake on Hamilton’s car on that first run measuring what’s going on off the front wing.
“Of course, they’ll be measuring, it’s a new front wing for this year, new all bits and certainly as I can see Oscar Piastri at the moment, they’re making adjustments to his front wing as he goes around.”
Jolyon Palmer unhappy with Red Bull’s pre-season testing plans
Verstappen still managed to maintain his lead in the drivers’ championship last year even after McLaren and other teams exploited the allowance of more flexible front wings.
He’s unlikely to start 2025 with the same advantage he enjoyed last year, potentially making it even more difficult to retain his crown.
Jolyon Palmer has accused Red Bull of favouring Verstappen during testing, with Lawson’s program on Thursday impacted by an unforeseen mechanical issue and the weather.
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Lawson needs as much time in the car as possible having only taken part in 11 Grand Prix and all of those with the sister Racing Bulls team.
While their cars share similarities, he’s not used to the exact setup of the RB21, whereas Verstappen is likely to be able to get up to speed much more quickly.
Max Verstappen’s pace looked ominous on the first day of testing, it’ll be interesting to see what he can do during his final day of running on Friday.
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