Lambiase after Friday in Abu Dhabi: 'Degradation higher than expected'

Published on 05 December 2025 by Niels Hendrix

GianPiero Lambiase, head of racing of Oracle Red Bull Racing, said after the Friday in Abu Dhabi at the Yas Marina circuit: “It was generally a productive day with Max: we focused a little bit less on single lap performance for high fuel sustainable running, which now gives us a bit more data heading into Sunday.”

“I think that has been proven useful as the tyres were a little bit more vulnerable compared to what we were perhaps expecting. It looks like front right graining is a problem for the field, so we need to analyse how we improve the longevity of this tyre heading into Sunday. Degradation is a bit higher than expected, so whilst we thought it would have been a relatively straight forward one stop, there’s a question mark over that now. We really need to understand how many stops it is going to be and how we will look after our tyres.”

Lambiase added: “The mood in the team is really good, it has been business as usual for us since we arrived and that is how we’ve approached the last nine or ten races since the shutdown. We’ll continue to do our thing and follow our process and the end result will look after itself. Max is doing well in the car and we will not give up until the checkered flag is waved.”

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