While much of Italy’s focus on Wednesday was on the Fiorano circuit, the country’s other F1 team – Racing Bulls – was shaking down their car at the Imola circuit.
Racing Bulls, Red Bull’s junior team, was initially expected to put the first laps on the VCARB02 on Monday but reportedly opted to delay so as not to fall foul of F1’s group launch at the O2 Arena.
Racing Bulls’ F1 car is finally on track!
According to Italian publication autoracer.it, Racing Bulls deemed it be ‘too risky’ for a sneak photograph to be taken of the car and therefore, ‘to avoid possible problems with Liberty Media’, the Red Bull junior team ‘decided to change the day of the VCARB02 filming day’.
But having shown off their predominately white design with its touches of Red Bull yellow and red in London on Tuesday night, Yuki Tsunoda put the first laps on the VCARB02 on Wednesday.
The Japanese driver was behind the wheel of the team’s final Honda-powered Formula 1 car.
Just 87 kilometres away from Ferrari’s Fiorano circuit with its celebratory atmosphere, Tsunoda laid down the laps on the VCARB02 with a smattering of fans and photographers watching on.
The new Racing Bulls car has clear Red Bull inspiration in the design with the car featuring Red Bull’s suspension layout, the gearbox, and also the RB20’s ‘shark-mouth sidepods’.
Yuki Tsunoda testing the new Racing Bulls VCARB 02 at the Imola circuit #YT22 #imola #racingbulls pic.twitter.com/dZcRWFeasd
— 竜己 (@Yk23sh) February 19, 2025
Team boss Laurent Mekies was asked about the synergies between Red Bull and their junior team when he spoke with the media, including PlanetF1.com, at the F1 75 event.
“In terms of synergy with Red Bull, nothing has changed with the VCARB02,” he said. “As we stated very many times, we do try to share what is following within the regulations. It is not 1% of the load, but the main components we can share, the gearbox, suspensions we have decided to do it.
“In terms of what we were looking for, I think there is a bit of two streams. In terms of characteristic, we wanted to have a car that was a bit more consistent compared to last year. We had very good moments last year, we had more difficult races.
“So in terms of overall target, we have tried to understand what made our car not so consistent last year and hopefully we will be able to address some of that now. In parallel, we were continuing to evolve the teams, to continue to build the team.
“I’m not here to tell you that we think we have solved all of our competitiveness issues, no. But certainly the team is in the right direction. We have started in our Milton Keynes facility on January 2nd we have now two very good headquarters. So the team is getting together, a lot of people have joined.
“Is it ready yet to say the car is up there? No, we don’t think it’s ready yet. We expect a tough first part of the season. But with the conviction that the direction of travel is the right one, people are pulling together in the right direction.
The team’s reserve driver Ayumu Iwasa was also running on Wednesday, taking part in a TPC outing behind the wheel of an AT04.
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