Red Bull Racing RB21

The Red Bull Racing RB21 is a Formula One car designed and constructed by Red Bull Racing currently competing in the 2025 Formula One World Championship. It is being driven by defending World Champion Max Verstappen, who is joined by Liam Lawson and Yuki Tsunoda, the latter replacing Lawson from the Japanese Grand Prix. The RB21, which is powered by the Honda RBPTH003 power unit, is the last Red Bull Racing car to be powered by Honda RBPT-badged engines; from the season, Red Bull and its sister team Racing Bulls will utilise Red Bull Powertrains Ford engines.

The RB21 is the first Red Bull Racing car since the RB2 to not be designed by former Chief Technical Officer Adrian Newey, and the first car to be designed by Technical Director Pierre Waché who is now overseeing all aspects of any future Red Bull challengers from design to production with the RB21 being the first car for which he oversaw both the design and production process.

As of the 2025 Canadian Grand Prix, the car has achieved two wins and five podiums, three pole positions, and one fastest lap, all with Verstappen.

Background

Livery

The livery of the car was unveiled at the F1 75 event at The O2 Arena, along with other teams, on 18 February 2025. The livery was similar to previous liveries, but with minor sponsorship changes.

At the , the RB21 featured a variation of the ''White Bull'' designed used at the 2021 Turkish Grand Prix, commemorating the final year of their partnership with Honda. The designed featured a matte white finish with satin red logos, emulating the racing colours of Japan.

At Imola, both cars were run with numbers in the style of the 2005-2013 Red Bull cars to commemorate their 400th Grand Prix.

Competition and development history of the RB21

Red Bull performed 304 laps around Bahrain International Circuit during pre-season testing. Following the testing, Verstappen concluded that, due to the lower average amount of completed laps - being the lowest of the ten teams overall - the team had 'work to do', with Lawson stating there were "teething gremlins" with the new car.

Opening rounds

; Verstappen and Lawson
Red Bull's driver lineup for the first two races of 2025 consisted of defending champion Max Verstappen, who was paired with rookie Liam Lawson. Lawson previously raced part-time in 2023 and 2024 for two iterations of Red Bull's sister team - Scuderia AlphaTauri and Visa Cash App RB - both times replacing Daniel Ricciardo. Lawson first appeared in Red Bull and AlphaTauri's first free practice sessions starting from the 2022 Belgian Grand Prix.

During qualifying for the , title rivals McLaren locked out the front row, with Verstappen having to settle for third. Meanwhile, Lawson was eliminated in Q1, starting eighteenth but moving to the pit lane following setup changes under parc fermé. After Oscar Piastri spun out, Verstappen moved up one spot to finish in second, while Lawson retired due to hitting the same wall where RB debutant Isack Hadjar retired on earlier during the formation lap. The following was a sprint weekend; Verstappen qualified second, and finished third. Verstappen found himself in fourth in qualifying and when he crossed the line to finish off the podium. Meanwhile, Lawson endured two last-place qualifications in the same weekend, with a pit lane start for the main race, and finished fourteenth in the sprint and fifteenth but becoming twelfth after three post-race disqualifications - after which Red Bull opened discussions to replace Lawson.

; Verstappen and Tsunoda
During the week leading up to the , Yuki Tsunoda was announced to be Lawson's replacement, with the latter dropping back to Racing Bulls. However, Tsunoda disappointed on his Red Bull debut and qualified fifteenth and finished twelfth while Verstappen took Red Bull's first pole position and win of the season. Red Bull had a weak , with Verstappen qualifying seventh, enduring slow pit stops, and recovering to sixth, and Tsunoda qualifying tenth, striking Carlos Sainz Jr.'s Williams and causing him to retire, and finishing ninth. Verstappen took pole position at the , but conceded the lead to Piastri after a move into turn one that exceeded track limits saw him penalised. Meanwhile, Tsunoda qualified seventh, hit another car, this time former AlphaTauri teammate Pierre Gasly now of Alpine, and retired on the opening laps.

Verstappen qualified fourth, and Tsunoda eighteenth, for the sprint. However, Verstappen was unsafely released into Mercedes polesitter Andrea Kimi Antonelli, which netted him a penalty. Due to a safety car intervention after Fernando Alonso was hit by Lawson, which ended as eventual winner Lando Norris crossed the line, Verstappen dropped to last, which marked the first time he failed to score points in any race format since the 2016 Belgian Grand Prix. Having started from the pit lane following further setup changes, Tsunoda finished in sixth. For the main race, Verstappen took pole position and went on to finish fourth. Tsunoda qualified and finished in tenth.

Mid-season rounds

The car sported a major upgrade package
and special numbers inspired by their earlier liveries for Red Bull Racing's 400th Grand Prix entry, the , but a heavy crash between Tsunoda and the wall at turn six destroyed both and ruled him out of qualifying, with him starting from the pit lane following a total rebuild of his RB21. However, Verstappen, who started second, salvaged a win following a move into turn one, with Tsunoda making up ten places to score one point.

Despite being off the pace, with a twelfth-placed Tsunoda exiting early in Q2 and Verstappen qualifying fourth, Red Bull had a clean . During the first pit stop phase, Verstappen was shuffled into first and led a majority of the race. He and Red Bull banked on a late-stage disruption (either via safety car or red flag) to get his second stop - this time free - out of the way, but it did not come. Due to the new regulation surrounding Monaco's forced two-stop strategy, Verstappen was called to do his second stop on the penultimate lap, releasing a scant Lando Norris into the clean air he needed to shake a chasing Charles Leclerc off his back. Verstappen ended up finishing in fourth, and Tsunoda ended up falling to seventeenth, two laps down.

Tsunoda qualified last at the Spanish Grand Prix, with Verstappen in third. During the race itself, Verstappen was involved in a notable collision incident with George Russell of Mercedes, which netted him a ten-second penalty that dropped him to tenth; Tsunoda started from the pitlane and finished thirteenth. Due to Russell finishing in fourth, Verstappen only scoring one point, and Tsunoda coming out of the race without points, Red Bull dropped to fourth in the Constructors' Championship, behind Mercedes.

Complete Formula One results

Season still in progress.

Notes

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Red Bull RB21
2025 Formula One season cars
Red Bull Formula One cars