Red Bull's Austrian GP overhaul likened to a 'B-spec' car as weight loss programme eyed

Red Bull’s return to form at the Austrian Grand Prix has been attributed to a sweeping upgrade package so extensive that former team mechanic Calum Nicholas likened it to a ‘B-spec’ car — and he suspects undeclared weight savings may have been equally decisive.

The Milton Keynes outfit arrived at the Red Bull Ring with seven officially documented modifications, all heavily focused on flow conditioning. The changes spanned the sidepod inlets, engine cover, floor top and underside, rear corners, and rear suspension fairings — a breadth of revision that Nicholas described as unusually comprehensive.

“Everything from the sidepod inlet to the engine cover, the floor, the top section of the floor, the underside, rear corners, rear suspension fairings — it’s a lot,” Nicholas said on Red Bull’s Talking Bull podcast. “And it does almost feel like a B-spec car.”

Beyond the visible aerodynamic work, Nicholas raised the possibility that a weight reduction programme running in parallel may have delivered a significant share of the performance gain. Red Bull began the 2025 season carrying excess weight, and Nicholas suggested that incremental savings across numerous components — none of which require FIA declaration — could have been quietly accumulated by the time the team reached Austria.

“I wonder how much of it came from the aero and the performance that we brought through the upgrades that we declared, and how much of the performance came from losing a bit of timber,” he said. “With weight loss, it’s one of those things where you’re finding all of the tiny little marginal gains. It’s not like you’ll have one component that’s just massively overweight.”

The results at the Red Bull Ring gave the theory some credibility. Max Verstappen finished second, while rookie team-mate Isack Hadjar crossed the line sixth, leaving Red Bull with 26 points from the weekend — a meaningful haul at a circuit where the team had previously struggled for pace this season.