#vcarb

VCARB is currently holding it down as the clear leader of ‘best of the rest’ which is a super strong position for them since they are the designated baby team. It’s not the first time VCARB has been able to duke it out, 2008, 2015/16 were also very strong years and for some of the same reasons, but every time it happens it's always like... this doesn't feel right, something is unbalanced in the force.

Fundamentally, the team is set up to be an incubator for talent and in its current manifestation, the end of the most masterful social media strategy game in the world of sports. I hope they get all the industry accolades and put them in their trophy case cause vcarb brand and marketing is working.

On the driving side, it’s all set up with young drivers in mind; the engineers take more control with the cars, especially at first, and they work to build the driver’s knowledge. This also manifests in the car.

The key characteristic of the VCARB car is that it is balanced, which means that it is easier to drive successfully. When I say balanced, I mean primarily between the front and rear end (oversteer v understeer), which means when they turn, it turns more like a normal car if a normal car could go 300 kph. This makes it easier to keep on track and gives our junior drivers the best chance of finishing the race. 

Big sister Red Bull, by contrast, has a car philosophy around design extremes to capture higher results. So if you picture it, the Red Bull is designed to have the chance of higher results, but for every bit of extra performance, it creates a driving burden of precision. In the case of 2026, we’re also seeing reliability issues stemming from this aggression, from their reversible wing that periodically doesn’t close the air gap quick enough, start issues, etc. High fragility, high reward. Meanwhile, again, the vcarb sacrifices the heights for more solid steady performance. Red Bull is slightly unusual in the degree of their design philosophy, historically the best cars were also designed to be compliant to the driver, which means that they do what the driver wants; last year’s McLaren was noted as being particularly compliant. VCARB is on the far end, not pushing to any edges to design a very solid car.

This is the main reason why drivers who struggled in the Red Bull do better when they return to VCARB, the driving characteristics are a lot easier to manage and to push to the car’s limit. It’s one of the fun paradoxes of the F1 cars that they have to be driven fast to stay on track, since they need downforce, so the less confidence a driver has and the more they back off the throttle, the more likely they also are to crash. But then also if they lose control at high speeds, also crash, so an unstable car is a car that crashes both coming and going. 

You might also be thinking: hey this is the red bull finishing school but it sounds like driving the vcarb doesn't prepare the drivers to drive the red bull. And you would be correct.

Anyway Liam is on the greatest run of his career since he came second in DTM in 2021. (And Liam is one of my little Squishies so trust this is from a place of love that I do have to note he hasn't had to do many on track battles this year)

So when we assess the performance of the VCARB we must hold in our hands two truths: the vcarb is designed to drive well by drivers still learning their craft, and the ambition of other teams is their undoing, as they rise icarus like the humble vcarb is there dutifully storing all the grains they need to survive the winter/grand prix, or however the fable goes. 

The engine:

VCARB is where you can really see how strong the Red Bull engine project is. In their less performant chassis and setup they are clearing the rest of the midfield and by significant margins in the races

Red Bull has the larger turbo that hurt their starts before the FIA changed the rules and now they are cruising along well. Arvid in particular has had a couple of really strong starts despite that one where his clutch was broken and everyone had to do that extra formation lap (confirmed to not be driver error)

I assume that VCARB is also getting more information on deployment strategies than any other of the customer teams due to their unique relationship with Red Bull but I don’t know that for sure. If they aren’t then they have best solved the science fictional puzzle

The chassis:

a comfortable friend designed for balance and driving ease

A note on the races: right now vcarb are mostly racing each other. After lap 1 they get well ahead of the rest of the midfield and well behind the frontrunners. This also takes some pressure off of our vcarblings. Tho of course they've made up for it by recreating multi 21 except for positions 9 and 10. Multi 9-10 Arvid, multi 9-10.

What to expect:

honestly tough to say! If McLaren, Audi, and Red Bull continue to have significant reliability and performance issues then they might keep cruising in these 6-7 positions, otherwise they should be hopefully fighting for points for one or both cars