Red Bull reveals RB21 as Max eyes fifth F1 title

Red Bull has officially revealed its 2025 Formula 1 challenger, the RB21, which Max Verstappen will pilot in his quest for a fifth consecutive drivers' championship.

The unveiling came just before F1's three-day winter testing begins in Bahrain, with Red Bull being the last team to showcase its new machine.

Evolution from the troubled RB20

The RB21 maintains a livery nearly identical to its predecessor, which fans had already glimpsed during last week's F1 75 event in London.

However, beneath the familiar exterior, the team has implemented significant changes aimed at resolving the balance issues that hampered their 2024 campaign.

While the studio images deliberately concealed many technical details, the car represents an evolution of last year's RB20, which started strong but gradually lost its competitive edge as the season progressed.

Addressing last season's decline

The 2024 season began with Red Bull and Verstappen demonstrating their usual dominance, but the team's fortunes changed dramatically as McLaren and Ferrari caught up and eventually surpassed them in performance.

Both Verstappen and then-teammate Sergio Perez struggled increasingly with balance problems, with Perez suffering more severely.

It wasn't until September's Italian Grand Prix that the team gained crucial insights into their car's fundamental issues, but by then, Red Bull had already fallen to third in the constructor standings behind McLaren and Ferrari.

Technical approach for 2025

Technical Director Pierre Wache has revealed that the team faced a delicate balancing act in developing the RB21.

"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 told Motorsport.com.

"You know that if you increase the [operating] window you also reduce the overall potential."

Reflecting on lessons from recent seasons, Wache added,

"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."