Red Bull Racing CEO Laurent Mekies confirmed that the team is working hard behind the scenes to improve its situation after a difficult start to the 2026 season to rejoin the fight in Miami.
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Red Bull had a complicated start in 2026, with the RB22 proving to be a difficult car to handle in F1’s new regulatory era.
Suffering from a lack of speed and power from its power unit, the team sits in a distant sixth place in the standings after three rounds, tied with Alpine with 16 points.
Mekies stands by his past choices
The season took an even more negative turn in Japan, with Max Verstappen’s elimination in Q2, far from his performances since 2022 as the sport’s benchmark. Looking back at the decision to develop the 2025 RB21 late, Mekies stands by his choice.
“We thought and still think it was the right decision, because we felt that turning the page to 2026 would have been a bit of an easy escape and wishful thinking that the following year would be better, even though we didn’t fully understand what the 2025 limits were,” he told the Beyond the Grid podcast.
“We didn’t think it was the right way, admits the team principal. Now, of course, the time and energy we invested in that late push last year, does it impact the 2026 starting point? Of course it does. Of course, we’re paying a bit of the price today. Is it an excuse? No.”
“We’re not happy with this starting point, but we believe we’ll overcome these difficulties, he assures. As we did last year, we’re going to fully understand the limitations. And this team has been very, very good at turning things around and we have another chance to do that this year.”
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Red Bull in “attack mode”
Although the team is on the defensive, Mekies confirmed that Red Bull continues to push, as it struggles to master the RB22 and its first internal power unit, giving a glimpse into the morale within the team.
Even though Mekies could use the late development push from last year and Red Bull’s first year with its own power unit as an excuse to call 2026 a transition year, the Frenchman insisted the team remained in “attack mode”.
“We’re doing everything we can so that this year isn’t a transition year, despite the scale of the challenge, despite the challenge of the new power unit, he said. We want to make sure that we’re not in a transition year. No. We’re absolutely not in that mode. We’re in full attack mode. ”
Motivation intact
“As we said, we’re not happy with the starting point. But if you walk into Milton Keynes right now, there’s energy in every department, says the French engineer. There’s a burning fire of desire to get back as quickly as possible to a more competitive car, to a better position. And that’s what one feels at the factory today: this burning desire to gain enough understanding and development for the car, so we can out-develop the competition and move back up. ”
Red Bull is not used to Q2 eliminations or being out of the title fight due to poor performance. Mekies’ words, although reassuring, do not yet show that the team has completely solved its pace problems. Miami is likely to be difficult, but the season is still long.
The (not yet official) announcement of engineer Gianpiero Lambiase’s move to McLaren obviously does not echo the confidence shown by Red Bull’s French leader, but it should not happen before 2028, giving time to see what happens…
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