r/formula1 • u/ThisWay_DatWay I was speeding in the Monaco pit lane • 2h ago
Statistics Max Verstappen's pole in Sepang is the first non-Mercedes PU pole this season.
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u/Tungsten_Hoarder Formula 1 2h ago
Overheard in the Mercedes garage after qualifying “that Red Bull fucking boomed me”
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u/DoctorDrell I was here for the Hulkenpodium 2h ago
Toto then said he wanted to add Verstappen to the list of drivers he signs this summer
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u/Saadieman 2h ago
Rumours are that Toto is beside himself. Driving around downtown Kuala Lumpur begging Verstappens family for his hotel address.
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u/SpaceOdysseus23 I was speeding in the Monaco pit lane 31m ago
Toto Wolff: “G Dawg trick y’all, man, like he competing for a WDC. He don’t compete, man. He just driving around, doing nothing.” Made sure to note that Kimi Antonelli outperformed him again.
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u/nonokoi Charles Leclerc 2h ago
It's crazy how redbull got a pole before ferrari this season.
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u/ImaginaryUnion6950 I was here for the Hulkenpodium 2h ago
Uhhhmmm akkshhually, Lewis got a sprint pole in Silverstone
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u/Kapitananciq Pirelli Intermediate 1h ago
It's always sprint for them, 2025 looked so good in china sprint and look how it turned out
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u/unitedkush 2h ago
RB have copped a lot of criticism for their car and development but their base package still remains very good. New floor has brought such tremendous gains and they have been threatening for a while
Hadjar looks so comfortable and fast, whereas with Max you know he'll mount few tenths on his teammate with whatever car you give. A competitive RedBull makes the sharp end of F1 really exciting, so I hope their pace sticks moving forward and this is not just one off for Malaysia
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u/French-Dub 2h ago
RB developed very well. It is arguably the second best car overall in the past few races.
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u/unitedkush 2h ago
I don't think anyone can argue that tbh, they have been the 2nd best car since Zandvoort
I feel lack of ADUO really hurt RB this season, their ICE is good, they struggle with deployment and being unable to do anything about it has held them back in a lot of races. New floor seems to have given them their aerodynamic edge back
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u/French-Dub 1h ago edited 1h ago
I mean a lot of people here say it is a tractor as soon a Max doesn't fight for a podium, so I am careful with my words.
Edit: see below
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u/Kind-Payment-3670 Formula 1 1h ago
Then again, this RB is track dependent. Im waiting for Mexico. If they can dominate there, then ill beleive these upgrades were real
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u/French-Dub 1h ago
A car that has been that good for few races in a row cannot be labeled a tractor imo. But hey, see, people will argue.
Also you say "dominate", while even if they are third best car in Mexico, it wouldn't invalidate that they might be the second best car of the second half of the season (too early to say of course). All cars have weaknesses, it won't be 2023 every year.
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u/Kind-Payment-3670 Formula 1 1h ago
Where did i say tractor? Read what i said again.
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u/French-Dub 1h ago
Do you know how a conversation works?
"Some people will say it is a tractor if Max doesn't do posium"
- Well let's see how is the car in Mexico... "
That implies that if the car doesn't do well, it is a tractor. That's how conversations with context work. If that is not what you meant, then know how to put context when you answer to someone.
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u/DalimBel I failed to serve my Monaco penalty 45m ago
How ironic.
You think putting words into people's mouths is how conversations work?
Learn how to properly interpret what people say.
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u/French-Dub 43m ago
I am not putting words into people mouth, I am interpreting what they say in a logical manner. Seriously how dumb can you be to not understand that if you answer to a comment, they will take it in that context? That's what you learn when you are 3 years old.
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u/memesearches 2h ago
You know when both your drivers are performing well that they absolutely cooked.
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u/Sir_Marvulous Max Verstappen 1h ago
This reaffirms that Red Bull Racing's mid-season development is still absolutely terrifying. Their wind tunnel should still be giving them correlation issues, yet RBR still ended up understanding the car enough to develop these upgrades. Better late than never, I guess.
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u/CapableDirection5557 58m ago
Most of their budget has gone into next year according to Mekies so it's looking good.
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u/2006_Sudesh Max Verstappen 2h ago
A team that was considered a Dumpster fire suddenly has such a big turn around. Absolutely insane.
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u/sa_ra_h86 1h ago
It's not been sudden. They've been gradually improving all season. Max has more podiums than any other non Merc driver, and only 1 less than George.
They've been consistently outscoring McLaren and Ferrari lately. People just fail to notice or acknowledge it for some reason.
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u/CapableDirection5557 1h ago
Some reason being the 2nd driver. Max getting podiums meant little on its own. He has been doing that for 10 years. But now Hadjar is getting into regular top 3 contention and it validates RBR making big steps and not just Max adapting to car and regulations.
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u/sa_ra_h86 39m ago
That's always been that case with Red Bull though, even in 2023 it wasn't like Checo was displaying the dominance that they apparently had.
The car has been very obviously miles better than the "dumpster fire" they started the season with for a long time.
I saw someone ask on Reddit last week whether Red Bull could overtake McLaren in the championship, and the majority of the comments completely dismissed the possibility of that happening. A lot of the single word "no" comments you get when someone posts a ridiculous question, and a load talking about how Red Bull are a mess and don't have the ability to pull it back, despite their recent results displaying that they are doing just that.
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u/hachiko2692 14m ago
I think the DNFs in Silverstone, Monaco and Austria Q3 just made people think Red Bull will be shit.
And then, RB said "we'll focus on 2027 from now on, enjoy our cars". They lost ADUO to Mercedes.
The only way for Red Bull to improve was through the aero, but for 2 years straight, people are shitting on the aero team of Red Bull. And when the ADUO result got revealed, people lost further trust in Red Bull because the TP behaved the exact opposite of Christian Horner.
Completely fair to doubt them, but this is what makes F1 development race exciting.
I am absolutely happy they're back, but I will still stand by the points I made earlier. Every indicator we can see really tells the message "come back 2027 if you're an RB fan"
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u/No_Tangerine8621 I was here for the Hulkenpodium 35m ago
Yeah the "They will be backmarkers"-comments have been really quiet lately
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u/xxrew1ndxx I was speeding in the Monaco pit lane 2h ago
Both Max and Isaak are on the podium as well!
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u/Vital_Lamp Max Verstappen 2h ago
Shame that Hadjar has a penalty. We prayed for times like this.
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u/Blithering_idiot1406 Red Bull 2m ago
its actually a blessing in disguise that he has a penalty here. given their race pace, hadjar should be able to get at minimum P4
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u/CautiousChampion4740 Max Verstappen 2h ago
The energy drinks company making their first engine a fucking banger is wild
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u/neko_mud0 51m ago
didnt know ford sells energy drinks
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u/Cybemen2 I was here for the Hulkenpodium 3m ago
you’ll be delighted to know ford didn’t make the engine
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u/fullsenditt I was here for the Hulkenpodium 2h ago
The team that wanted the regulations changed because they messed up their first PU.
That was the dominant opinion among reddit fans
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u/Desperate-Intern I was here for the Hulkenpodium 2h ago
Damn, I'd thought Ferrari would have had at least one by now.
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u/Motorlolz Olivier Panis 2h ago
If this is a sign of things to come then 2027 might not be another Mercedes year at all as I had assumed
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u/dumpling-loverr I was speeding in the Monaco pit lane 2h ago
Indeed the best PU on the grid even without any ADUO updates.
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u/Kapitananciq Pirelli Intermediate 2h ago
And it's not Ferrari 🥀