Why Red Bull suffered brutal reality check in Brazil

The elevation changes and bumpy surface of Interlagos proved a brutal reality check for Red Bull.

Since the Italian Grand Prix at Monza, Laurent Mekies' team had genuinely believed they were turning the corner with the RB21. A new floor package transformed the car's aerodynamic balance, offering hope it might gain momentum in the season's final stages.

Three wins in five grands prix followed for Max Verstappen, allowing him to close the gap on championship leader Lando Norris to 36 points heading into the São Paulo Grand Prix weekend, raising hopes of a fifth consecutive F1 drivers' championship.

But Brazil stripped away those illusions with ruthless efficiency as Verstappen found himself wrestling with a car that would not cooperate, with the culprit being ride height.

In Azerbaijan, for example, Red Bull ran minimal downforce, allowing the team to lower the car to extract crucial grip. In Brazil, the circuit's bumps made such adjustments impossible. The result was a car starved of grip at both ends.

Understeer plagued the front, whilst the rear offered little traction. Verstappen was forced into the ignominious position of having to "tame" his engine, as he noted, reducing power to the rear wheels to prevent wheelspin. On a circuit where straight-line speed matters, it was a compromise that cost precious tenths.

Ferrari find sweet spot

Whilst Red Bull floundered, Ferrari unlocked the SF-25's potential through meticulous setup work. Like Red Bull, they ran the same low-downforce rear wing configuration used in Saudi Arabia, but Ferrari's engineers found the crucial balance that eluded their rivals.

After Saturday's sprint, the Scuderia made critical adjustments to ride height and suspension settings. The changes gave Charles Leclerc sufficient grip to bring his tyres into their operating window whilst providing stability through Interlagos' challenging sequence of corners, in contrast to team-mate Lewis Hamilton, who visibly struggled with the rear of his car.

Ferrari's rear wing, in particular, featured a thinner profile with reduced curvature, designed to minimise drag on the straights. A striking detail saw the wing's centre section positioned slightly lower than the outer edges, enhancing overall efficiency.

The beam wing beneath the main element also adopted a flatter profile, better directing airflow from beneath the car to extract additional downforce from the floor.

McLaren followed similar principles with their aerodynamic approach. The MCL39 sported a low-downforce rear wing with an almost straight upper edge, broken only by a gentle downward slope at the central mounting point, again slightly reducing drag.

It all demonstrates how extremely sensitive this generation of ground-effect cars has become. With only three races remaining in the 2025 season, the teams are pushing the limits of what's technically possible, yet a few millimetres of adjustment in ride height can lead to disaster for an apparent podium contender.

In short, at Interlagos, we saw that even the best teams - like Red Bull - still face a grey area of unpredictability. No matter how well a team of engineers may think they know their car, under the specific conditions of a circuit like Brazil, certainties can suddenly evaporate.