The Red Bull 2025 car that has begun its Formula 1 pre-season testing in Bahrain is "fundamentally" what the team will run at the start of the season, according to team boss Christian Horner.
This comes as something of a surprise given the RB21 design looks, from a visible componentry standpoint, very similar to the RB20 that took Max Verstappen to the drivers' title last year but was outdeveloped by the likes of Ferrari and McLaren by the end of the 2024 campaign.
The deliberately dimly-lit pictures of the RB21 when the design was first unveiled in the lead-up to the test, coupled with Red Bull's past tendency for being quite careful and selective with what it reveals before the car his the track, suggested the team could be preparing to spring a surprise in Bahrain.
But this is now evidently not the case - and Horner indicated it won't be the case for the season opener in Melbourne, too.
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Speaking as part of the team bosses' press conference at the midday point of the opening day of testing, Horner repeatedly emphasised the trends for design convergence up and down the grid and that F1 has collectively zeroed in on what appear to be the optimal design solutions for this regulations cycle.
"It's clear that the cars have converged and they look very-very similar. Probably Ferrari is the standout, probably being the differentiator - but... that's inevitable, that marginal gains are going to be [the focus]," he said.
And this is clearly part of the reasoning for why the new Red Bull is as visually similar to the RB20 as it is, with Horner also emphasising that despite its in-season downturn the 2024 car was a solid platform.
"I think we've just got to improve across some of the characteristics of last year's car, the team have worked very hard on that over the off-season," said Horner.
"Let's not forget we still won nine races and four sprint races with that car last year."
Horner’s comments on the relative success of the 2024 car underline Red Bull’s belief that it wasn’t lacking downforce last year, and therefore the changes didn’t need to be a full aerodynamic overhaul but rather smaller tweaks aimed at helping open up a wider set-up operating window.
The visual differences between the RB21 and last year's design amount to subtle things like a slightly reshaped sidepod, a change to the beam wing and the air intake below the airbox, winglets on the halo and a different engine cover shape.
But Horner also repeatedly emphasised that, while the visual similarity is clear for all to see, there's still a substantial design evolution in play - particularly in unseen parts of the car (presumably the underfloor and alike).
"Every surface on our car is different to last year, it just looks similar because it's a similar philosophy. And you can see other cars have converged with that," he said in one answer.
"We've had a good winter, we've prepared well," he followed up in another.
"I think this car - whilst it doesn't look a huge amount visibly different to last year's car, is subtly different in many different areas, and particularly in the areas you can't see.
"This season's all going to be about evolution, it's going to be about trying to get incremental bits of performance, and it'll be a development race from Melbourne all the way to Abu Dhabi."
The Race pressed Horner specifically on whether he could rule out a major visual change between now and the season-opening Australian Grand Prix, and he said: "It's basically the car that will start the season. There may be some subtle changes introduced between now and then but fundamentally it's what we will be taking to Melbourne."
The Race understands the lack of drastic visual changes is also connected to Red Bull's wariness over over-committing resource to trying to develop and exploit a new/substantially different car concept for 2025 ahead of the major regulations change in 2026 that will influence every single team's development plans and priorities.
