Racing Bulls outline ‘strange’ upgrade plan for next two races

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Racing Bulls Team Principal Alan Permane has offered an insight into the team's "strange" upgrade plans, with the F1 paddock in the midst of an April break due to the Bahrain and Saudi Arabian Grands Prix not taking place this month. However, Permane has admitted that the unscheduled break has caused a slightly unusual set of circumstances for his team’s next raft of updates, with Racing Bulls currently sitting seventh in the standings, just two points behind Red Bull. The Faenza-based outfit had planned to bring their first big package of parts to Bahrain in early April – these will instead come to Miami – but it leaves the team facing a situation where that part will effectively be "almost replaced" for the next round in Montreal. “We had a pretty decent upgrade planned for Bahrain, which of course we will see in Miami,” Permane explained speaking to selected media, including F1.com. “We had another upgrade planned for Montreal, so we will have a sort of quick double hit there. There's no way to bring them both. The Montreal one, we can't bring earlier. So, it's a slightly strange situation where we'll bring a new quite decent upgrade and new component, and then almost replace it straight away – that's just the way the calendar's fallen. “We are going to take the opportunity to do some unplanned work on the chassis, so there's some bits and bobs to do, there's some upgrades there that weren't actually planned in until the end of this flyaway sequence so that's helped us there.” Racing Bulls have enjoyed a strong start to the season so far, having had at least one driver score in every Grand Prix. Arvid Lindblad impressed on debut in Australia by finishing in the points, while Liam Lawson went on to score in both China and Japan. They are locked in a tight midfield battle with the likes of Alpine, Haas and Audi for points, and have been helped by some of the front runners suffering poor reliability, which opened up more point-scoring opportunities. Apart from upgrading the car just to upgrade it again, Permane also detailed where else the break will help his team in terms of their development direction. “There are some parts that we weren't expecting to get back, so we've brought that forward," he said. "But honestly the actual cycle of upgrades is pretty well planned. “As I said, we have an upgrade due for Bahrain that, I guess, what it's allowed us to do is we'll have more quantities of it for Miami. We may have only had one or two – probably two or three – sets of it for Bahrain [but] we will have three or four sets of it. “So it's allowed us to be a little bit better prepared there, but it hasn't actually affected that cycle of upgrades because they're planned a few weeks in advance anyway so it didn't really change much there.” Although Racing Bulls have scored in all three Grands Prix and the Sprint in Shanghai, and thus seem to be right in the midst of that midfield fight, Permane admitted that his drivers have out-performed what he expected – based on decisions made last season. “I think we are paying the price a little bit with our performance against the people we're racing,” he explained. "Certainly Alpine who abandoned last season, we are not surprised to see them where they are. “We developed our car late into the year so we expected to start a little bit on the back foot. But I also expect that what we've got coming soon, what I know we've got in the pipeline, will lift us certainly a little bit more into that midfield battle whereas at the moment we're more to the middle to the back of it. “I'm very confident that we can keep up, if not do better than the other midfield teams… We already had a good step from Bahrain to Melbourne, as I say we've got another good step coming the next race and then another good step from Montreal and then we've got steps coming. “There'll be small steps almost every race I would say, and then we've got another two or three large upgrades already planned and can't really see beyond that. So, up to the shutdown we've got a plan, so I'm very confident that we can stay with that group.” BettingMcLaren's improved pace shortens Norris title oddsHow long do the drivers’ current contracts last?Komatsu highlights 'important quality' Bearman brings to HaasBernd Maylander on reaching 500 races as the Safety Car driverAudioExclusivePin on ‘learning’ in new Mercedes role and her F1 goalOUR PARTNERSView allDownload the Official F1 AppScheduleDriversNewsTeamsFantasy & GamingCookie PreferencesMoreF1FacebookXInstagramYouTube© 2003-2026 Formula One World Championship Limited