F1 | Racing Bulls: VCARB 01 grows. The Top 5 is no longer a pipe dream

Racing Bulls was among the most talked about teams in the winter break between the end of the 2023 World Championship and the beginning of the 2024 World Championship. The team now managed by Laurent Mekies and Peter Bayer has strengthened its partnership with Red Bull Racing over the last few months . Nothing strange, one might say, considering the same ownership, i.e. the Red Bull Group. But precisely for this reason, at least between December and January, the proclamations were very cautious.

Furthermore, this strengthened bond had already made several insiders turn up their noses. The most active in the public protests in the press was Zak Brown, CEO of McLaren, who had warned everyone of the possibility of creating potential movements outside of legality between the two teams, bypassing the limits imposed by Budget Cap.

If in Faenza most of the staff were busy with other matters (choosing whether to accept the offer to transfer to England or abandon their jobs), in Milton Keynes there was a clear feeling of being able to bring Racing Bulls, born from the ashes of AlphaTauri , to be not only the surprise of the 2024 season, but even a candidate for the podium.

The facts, however, did not follow expectations. The VCARB 01 proved to be much less performing, at least in the first races. But in the last 4 races the trend has completely reversed. Proof of this is the 19 points scored between Melbourne and Miami. This led the team from Faenza to abandon last position in the Constructors’ standings and rise directly to sixth place, leaving Haas, Alpine, Williams and Sauber to fight to avoid being at the bottom of the season.

The first step, the one that should lead to getting back on top, has been taken. But now there are already those who are looking further up, to the Top 5 of the Constructors’ World Championship. At first glance, an unmotivated optimism, considering the difficulties experienced in the first two races. Then, however, if you stop to look at the standings, Aston Martin Racing, which occupies fifth place, has a 23-point advantage. Of course, the margin is still considerable, but now that Racing Bulls seems to have found Daniel Ricciardo again after the chassis change and can always rely on a constantly growing Yuki Tsunoda, the goal doesn’t seem to be so unattainable.

The Japanese driver himself is the largest shareholder in this recovery. It’s not just a question of results as an end in themselves, but of a competitiveness that has become much more solid and constant on all tracks.

“In short, our pace was incredible. We had pace and we had it throughout the race in Miami. The difference with Ferrari and McLaren, I assure you, was not that great. For us, in the first races, it was never It is possible to reach these levels. And this shows how much we are pushing, especially when it comes to the people who work in the factory”:

“The progress we have made has only been very rapid. Daniel also managed to get a great fourth position in the SPrint. This shows how much pace we have in our car.”

“Aside from China, which is a race I really want to forget, we have always been in the Top 10 and fought for points. We did this for most of the races. And we weren’t just fighting for tenth position, because we achieved an eighth, ninth, ninth, seventh and fourth place. The progress we are making is very rapid.”

“Obviously we are not yet at the level of Mercedes, for example, but in Miami I managed to reduce the gap to them and I was consistently faster than either of the two Mercedes. So, if we continue like this, perhaps at some point we will be able to reach the Top 5 in the Constructors’ Championship. In short, now it’s not like they are that much faster than us. In short, this is our current objective.”