As FP1 and FP2 draw to a close, F1TV's Sam Collins takes a look at some of the most interesting updates that we've seen in Melbourne so far.
00:00 Intro
00:25 New season, new regs and planning for 2026
01:53 Red Bull's technical strategy
04:41 All change for the Racing Bulls
05:31 Interview with Racing Bulls' Alan Permane
08:32 Racing Bull deep dive
11:31 Rear Wings galore
15:15 Mercedes exhaust
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https://www.facebook.com/Formula1/
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#F1
00:00 Intro
00:25 New season, new regs and planning for 2026
01:53 Red Bull's technical strategy
04:41 All change for the Racing Bulls
05:31 Interview with Racing Bulls' Alan Permane
08:32 Racing Bull deep dive
11:31 Rear Wings galore
15:15 Mercedes exhaust
For more F1® videos, visit https://www.Formula1.com
Follow F1®:
https://www.instagram.com/F1
https://www.facebook.com/Formula1/
https://www.twitter.com/F1
https://www.twitch.tv/formula1
https://www.tiktok.com/@f1
#F1
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00Do you stick or twist? Because 2025 is stacking up to be a season like no other.
00:08New concepts for some, while others hold on to what they already know. But with new
00:13regulations on the horizon, who can deal with the change? It's time to see who's
00:18played their cards right down under and who'll get lost in the shuffle.
00:24Hello and welcome to the first episode of Tech Talk for the 2025 Formula 1 season proper.
00:31Pre-season testing is done and dusted and the teams have headed down under
00:35to Australia, to Melbourne's Albert Park for the Australian Grand Prix.
00:40And some things are very much the same, as you already heard, but some things
00:44are a little bit different. That's right, a new season always means new rule changes.
00:50Except this season, that's not entirely true. There is a single significant new rule change.
00:57That's right, due to a driver cooling system, the car weights have increased by a whopping,
01:03well it's about two kilos actually, just so the drivers can have this cooling system,
01:06which we're going to detail a little bit later in the season. However, that is not all. Two kilos,
01:12it doesn't sound like very much, bolted to the driver's seat or bolted to the driver themselves.
01:17But when you locate that in the car, it could have a different effect as the season goes on,
01:23on your vehicle dynamics. But let's be honest, it's not the biggest change of the year. No,
01:29indeed, the biggest change of the year is the 2026 regulations. So with just a small rule
01:34change there, well, there's a few other detailed rule changes as well, but for a fairly minor rule
01:38change like that, it's not a big surprise that some of this year's cars look a little bit like
01:43last year's cars with a new paint job. And in the case of Williams and Alpine,
01:47they're actually retaining the same monocoques as they did last year. And a few people speculated
01:52that Red Bull Racing were doing the same thing. Well, it doesn't look like they are. And actually,
01:57even though the Red Bull does look really similar to last year's car, it is quite different. In fact,
02:02the team has been developing the car consistently through pre-season testing right up to this
02:08weekend in Melbourne. And there are some interesting changes to the car. And one of
02:12the reasons that there are some changes to the car is that at the end of pre-season testing,
02:17I think it's fair to say that Max Verstappen wasn't particularly happy with the way the car
02:21was handling. And it was all down to a combination of parts that they introduced on the third day of
02:26the pre-season test. Down on the edge of the floor, a new floor was introduced to the car,
02:31and it kind of lost a bit of stability in that third day of the test. Some people are putting
02:36it down to the floor. But coming into Melbourne, Red Bull is still using that new specification
02:41floor. They're also using that new specification short nose that we talked about in pre-season
02:46testing. But one actual change that has been introduced for Melbourne, you can see here on
02:51the rear bodywork. They've opened up the rear cooling louvres on the engine cover quite
02:55significantly on the car. And that's a bit of a change. In fact, that whole cooling louvre section
03:00was only added on the third day of the pre-season test as part of that upgrade package they
03:04introduced in Bahrain. And I think the layout of it is just quite interesting. It's worth taking a
03:09quick look at. Because when you see the shape of the cooling outlet here, you can see a very
03:13distinctive downward section. And I wonder, are they trying to get a bit of downwash? Are they
03:17trying to channel the airflow down the side of the bodywork and into that all-critical area on
03:22the inner face of the rear wheel? Not quite a blown diffuser, but it's kind of reminiscent of
03:27that shape, isn't it? You can see that a lot more clearly when you look at this angle of the
03:32outlet on the side of the car. You can see that very clear downward shape. And then you can see
03:38how it interacts with the shape of the rear of the side pod and the upper section that bulges out
03:42here. And you can see where that airflow is sort of going. It's sort of heading down in this
03:46direction. Now, you can't really see air. And well, unless your name's Adrian Newin, he's not
03:50with Red Bull anymore. But you can't really see air without a wind tunnel. So we can't be precise
03:55until they cover this thing in FlowVis. And then we'll get a bit more of an understanding of what
03:59that airflow is doing coming out of this revised cooling exit. But I think that's quite an interesting
04:04sign that Red Bull are playing around with their cooling layout. And underneath the bodywork,
04:08you can see that Red Bull have changed the cooling layout quite a bit since last season.
04:13And Red Bull's layouts are quite a topic for me because I feel that they're not fully at home
04:20with that car still. In Free Practice 1 in Melbourne, Max Verstappen and Liam Lawson,
04:25neither of them looked fully happy with the cars as they were. And they were still changing the
04:30setup ever so slightly. And you saw both drivers fighting the car a little bit around the circuit
04:36in different ways as well. So a bit more to come from Red Bull Racing. But speaking of Red Bull
04:42Racing branded cars, not that one, another team that has changed quite a lot this season, not just
04:50their car design, but also, well, the team name, the team livery, and one of its drivers, Racing
04:56Bulls, previously known as Alpha Tauri, previously known as Toro Rosso. And if you're old as me,
05:01previously known as Minardi. Well, Racing Bulls is Red Bull's other team. And it is the team
05:06previously known as Alpha Tauri. Now, this car has drawn quite a lot of admiring glances from
05:12up and down the pit lane. And it is a little bit different to last year's car and quite similar in
05:17other ways to last year's Red Bull. And I think to explain a little bit more about what's changed
05:23and what's still the same, it's worth having a word with one of the key people behind it,
05:27Alan Permain, who's down in the pit lane talking to Laurence Berretta.
05:31It's quite different. The only thing that we've carried across from last year's car
05:35is the gearbox and rear suspension. So everything else is new. It's a new chassis.
05:41It's a completely new front wing. One of the things that we didn't really change through last
05:46year was the front wing, although we tried a lot to develop a new one in the wind tunnel.
05:50We've done that now. The whole thing is new. The floor is new. The front suspension is new.
05:55So it's all underbody, radiator layout, all that side of things is all new. So it's
06:01essentially a completely new car minus the rear end.
06:04Got you. And when we're talking about new bits on the car, I think often people think
06:08you're the sister team of Red Bull. They just give you a load of parts, but you've got a full team,
06:12obviously, back at base that are working hard independently.
06:16Absolutely. We take what we can with the regulations. But all the aerodynamic side of it,
06:24100% of the aerodynamic side of it is developed in-house and made in-house as well. So yes, it's
06:30our car. Now, I know there's reasonable stability within the regs, so maybe the chance to do
06:35something really cool with the car is a bit more tricky. But have you got any pieces you're
06:40particularly proud of, the team are particularly proud of, or particularly cool on there?
06:43I think the bit that caught my eye when I first saw the car is the floor and the
06:47floor edge. I think you can see there it's pretty, it's like a work of art. And I hope
06:53that brings us some performance. How different is what we're going to
06:56see this weekend to what we saw in Bahrain? This is essentially the same car as we saw
07:03in Bahrain. We've got some front wing parts to test, but we also had those in Bahrain and
07:08we were playing with them there. But this is essentially the Bahrain car, yes.
07:12From a development perspective going forward, I know it's the same for everyone, but you've
07:15got this balance between 2025 and 2026. Are we going to see maybe a little bit more development
07:19earlier in the year to turn the tops on the other way for next year?
07:22I'm very sure all teams will be doing that. Everyone will have a plan. I suspect after
07:30these first Scuttler races, those plans may change depending on where you are. If you
07:35expect to be eighth and you find yourself up third, you're going to change that plan.
07:40So everyone will have a development plan. Of course, there's a big incentive to get
07:45onto 2026 as quick as possible because the rate of development is so much higher than
07:49the rate on this car. So just finally, what is the mood in the
07:52team at the minute? Because testing I know is always difficult to read and I'm not expecting
07:57you to give me a prediction, but do you feel like you're in the mix to go out and fight
08:00there this weekend? Absolutely, we do. You're right. It's
08:04incredibly difficult to predict. And to say you know your own performance, you really
08:13don't because you don't really care about your own performance. All you care about is
08:16your relative performance. So you need to know everyone else's performance as well.
08:20So we know what we did. We know what fuel loads we had. We know what engine modes we
08:23had. We don't know what everyone else has. We'll know a bit more this weekend. We'll
08:27know another load more after the next weekend. The mood is good, though. The mood is good.
08:32Now, I'm still fascinated by this racing bulls car, and they've turned up in Melbourne
08:35with quite an interesting set up on the car in terms of the bodywork package fitted. You
08:40can see that when you look at the rear bodywork from behind. Now, this may just look like
08:44another Formula One car to you when you look from behind the rear wing, but it's more
08:48about what you don't see in this picture. And I'm really struggling to see any cooling
08:54outlets on that rear bodywork. Now, the cooling exit at the rear of the car is very, very
09:00small. You can see that as the car drives out of the final corner really clearly as
09:03it's going around the track. But when you look on the upper section of the bodywork,
09:06you'd expect to see some cooling louvres either on this section of the bodywork or
09:10somewhere around here on the centre of the engine cover. But they're just not there.
09:14Now, this isn't down to the Honda power unit needing a bit less cooling than maybe
09:18some of the others, because when you take a look at the Red Bull, we've already taken
09:21a look at it, same angle, you can see these big cooling louvres opening on the rear bodywork.
09:26Red Bull also has some cooling slots just on the central spine. None of that present
09:31on the Racing Bull. And then that story gets a bit more interesting when you take a look
09:35at the rear wing. It looks quite skinny. It might be the angle of this image, but I don't
09:40know. It looks like quite a low downforce rear wing for the Melbourne circuit. And it
09:46just looks to me that maybe Racing Bulls have gone for a slightly different approach to
09:51the circuit compared to other teams. They've gone for maybe a lower drag setup. We're
09:56waiting to see some of the data to see how that plays out, and we'll update you in
10:00China not only what the setup is, but also whether it really works. But it's quite
10:05a different approach, as I say, from Racing Bulls.
10:08Now, staying on the subject of rear wings, you may notice in this shot quite a lot more
10:13optical contact across the rear wing. Those are these little target logos all over that
10:19rear wing, lots more than we saw last season. Now, this is because one of the other changes
10:25for 2025. At the end of 2024, there was a bit of speculation about how some teams were
10:30using their rear wings in terms of were they flexing too much? Were they deforming in particular
10:36ways to reduce drag at high speed? And it was originally sort of reported that the FIA
10:41weren't going to take any additional action on rear wings. However, coming into this season,
10:46shortly before pre-season testing, it became clear that the FIA were going to take a slightly
10:51stronger look at what teams are doing with their rear wings, hence additional optical
10:57contacts. The FIA are going to be looking with some different cameras at how the rear
11:01wings are deforming at high speed, and just trying to understand exactly what teams are
11:06doing with their wings. And I have heard some rumours in the paddock that there are some
11:11eyes scooting about on different people's rear wings, but usually that's just paddock
11:15chatter, because how long have we been talking about flexible wings in Formula 1?
11:20Since the first wings were fitted to Formula 1 cars in 1968, have a look at Tech Talk Retro
11:25for a little bit more about that. You can find that elsewhere. Now, rear wings are still a topic,
11:31because when you start talking about the shape of the rear wing here for the racing bull,
11:37nearly called it an Alfa Tauri, you can see that they fitted a gurney along the trailing edge of
11:43the wing, suggesting that's a bit of dirty downforce, but it does work. A lot of teams
11:46are doing that approach. Are they running a bit of a lower wing angle than some of the other
11:51teams? Well, let's have a comparison. There's the racing bull. Let's compare to their sister team,
11:55Red Bull Racing, and have a look. You can see what I'm talking about here. It's quite a bigger
12:00dish, lower section. The main plane on the Red Bull looks a bit bigger here, very similar camera
12:04angle. And then the upper section, again, a gurney fitted to the central section of the flap,
12:09looks a bigger wing to me. When you look at that, compare it to this,
12:12I don't think it's an optical illusion, do you? It looks like racing bulls have got a simpler,
12:18lower drag rear wing on the car. And if you look on the outer edge past the roll tip,
12:21look how flat that is. And then look at the tip of the flap. It looks to be one big single part,
12:27and I'm not sure it necessarily fully separates here. I think it probably has to by regulation,
12:31because you've got a DRS flap there, but it does look like that flap there is just very much set,
12:37very flat. The wing tips are of particular interest compared to Red Bull. Now, look how
12:42much more complex the Red Bull wing tips are. Very different in their shape, sharper leading edge,
12:48very sculpted outer element. Red Bull playing around there with the rear wing. That story,
12:52though, continues down the pit lane. Ferrari, they've introduced a new rear wing for the
12:56Australian Grand Prix, quite a different main plane section. You can see it dipping down in
13:01the centre around the DRS pylon. And again, like Red Bull, they've got this extension. But unlike
13:07Red Bull, Ferrari's upper flap here, or the wing extension, does join the main plane fully. Not
13:13quite as extreme as Red Bull's, but pretty similar in overall concept. And as we work our way through
13:19the rear wings on the grid down to Mercedes, you can start to see some different variations on this
13:25theme. Now, Mercedes's extension, Mercedeses, is a very different shape to Red Bull and also to
13:33Ferrari. Much bigger extension, picking up in a different location on the wing with a larger cut
13:38out on the rear section there. Mercedes trying a slightly different direction. No big dip here,
13:43but again, much steeper wing than we saw on the racing Bulls car. Perhaps a much steeper wing
13:49than we've seen on any of the other cars, actually. That could work with the multiple DRS zones that
13:54are on track around Melbourne. Could help the team in corners. Bit more cornering force, perhaps,
13:59compared to some of the other teams with high top speeds. But they get their top speeds in DRS. Maybe
14:04Mercedes not expecting to be at the front of the field, but fighting in the pack. We'll have to
14:08wait and see about that. Aston Martin, pretty similar story down there. And down at Alpine,
14:15well, perhaps a different sort of wing flexibility going on there. Or maybe it just got a little bit
14:19cold. Not sure about that. Talking about some of the wings, Williams, they shocked everybody in
14:24pre-practice one, didn't they? Because that car was much quicker than anybody expected with Carlos
14:29Sainz at the wheel. Alex Alborn wasn't particularly a slouch either. However, the Williams is an old
14:35car. Is it a case of the last of the old beats the first of the new? We'll have to wait and see how
14:39this car develops through. Some lovely little details on this car, which we highlighted before.
14:43Down here, this extra little winglet on the rear wing pylon and then the trailing edge of
14:48the shark fin at the back of the bodywork. Really nice little details. Wonder if other
14:53teams will start to copy that and then take a look at Sauber. Well, yeah, not many people are
14:59going to be looking at the back of the Sauber, looking how the form is at the moment, because
15:03it'll only be when the blue flags come out and they get lapped unless they find some pace with
15:07this car. I think it is quite an interesting design and maybe we need to learn a little bit
15:11more about that. Speaking of learning a little bit more about the cars, there are quite a lot
15:15of details on the cars up and down the field. Mercedes, for example, I've noticed have completely
15:20revised their exhaust layout this year. They've had the same exhaust layout for the last few
15:24seasons, but they've changed it this year. Have they slightly relocated the turbocharger?
15:28Has the change to the rear suspension that introduced a little while ago,
15:32has that changed their routing of some of the parts or has the change to the cooling system
15:37meant that they need to change the positions of the exhaust? There are still so many questions
15:41that remain unanswered in Formula One 2025, but this is just race one and there's so much
15:47more to learn and we're going to be learning it right here on Tech Talk.