The Racing Bulls completed three days of TPC testing at Imola, beginning their preparations for 2025. Newcomer Isack Hadjar and the now established Yuki Tsunoda took to the track.
The Italian team will return to Imola again on February 17 for the first filming day of the season. Here they will cover their first 200km in the VCARB02. RB’s 2025 car will be a direct evolution of the old VCARB01, which had a bumpy development journey last season.
RB’s switch to the RB20 rear suspension and drivetrain in Las Vegas was an early step in the VCARB 02 project.
VCARB02: YES to front suspension and RB20 sidepods, NO to the bonnet with the “cannons”
Laurent Mekies’ team aim to finish sixth in the constructors’ championship, having missed out on that goal in 2024.
“We need to make sure we are top of the midfield,” admitted racing director Alan Permane. The RA25 project (the internal name for the VCARB 02 project) was finally decided in early December.
The team’s new chassis was homologated to accommodate the RB20’s front suspension and shark-mouth sidepods. Alongside the front wing, RB’s front suspension was one of their biggest limitations last year.
RB’s 2025 car will see a very different front wing compared to last season, an evolution of the specification introduced in Abu Dhabi. Changing this component is necessary to optimise airflow through the car body and the new shark-mouth sidepods.
The VCARB02 will have the now famous inverted L-shaped cooling inlet, with a horizontal and a vertical intake connected only internally. This is the same design used by their ‘big’ sister Red Bull in 2024.
Switching to the RB20 front suspension, however, will not change the team’s previous similar kinematics. This will allow the team to save around 1kg.
Last year’s rear suspension in Las Vegas will be built upon, though there will be some continuity. Compared to the rear, the RB20’s front pull-rod differs was a less radical change than what Red Bull changed with the rear suspension department between 2023 and 2024.
To some degree, this is what made the operating window of Verstappen and Perez’s cars even narrower. Having changed their suspension at the end of last year, the Faenza team gave themselves more time to learn and understand how to optimise setup.
The aerodynamic work of Racing Bulls then focused on the floor inlets, where the internal fins of the venturi ducts were completely redesigned. RB’s challenger will have some features than can be considered “special” – from what we understand.
Regarding the upper part of the car, the Faenza team discarded the use of Red Bull’s “cannon” shape. Red Bull reached a similar conclusion last year.
These cannons are associated wite poor operability of such a high bonnet, restricting synergy between the rear wings and the beam wing.
