We have to go back a long way to find a start to the season worse than the one Red Bull has had this year in 2026. After three races, the energy drink brand sits sixth in the standings, only two points ahead of its sister team, Racing Bulls. The head of Red Bull has an idea of what is happening.
According to Laurent Mekies, it’s possible that pushing development until the end of 2025 is taking its toll in 2026. And the truth is that Red Bull put everything into trying to win a world championship that they had practically lost to McLaren. It almost paid off, but the point is that they could now lose Max Verstappen because of it.
Red Bull has a great engine, but the chassis is failing
In 2025 we came very close to witnessing one of the great comebacks in Formula 1 history. Max Verstappen, who was 104 points behind the leader with nine races to go, ended up only two points away from snatching the world title from Lando Norris. An epic comeback that yielded no prize and that now may be paying a price.
According to Laurent Mekies, developing that car to its ultimate limits is taking its toll on this season’s performance. “Of course, the time and energy invested in 2025 are having a negative impact on 2026. We paid that price, but we don’t use it as an excuse,” admits the Red Bull boss.
Red Bull has had its worst start to a season since 2015, with only 16 points on the board, the same as Alpine, two fewer than Haas, and two more than its sister team, Racing Bulls. Of course, they haven’t come close to any podium. In fact, Verstappen is also posting his worst numbers since his debut in 2015.
The most worrisome thing is that the problem isn’t coming from the engine, but from the chassis, which suggests that it is indeed the Milton Keynes factory that is behind schedule. It is rumored that the Red Bull RB22 is too heavy, but it seems that the team will not enter the ADUO regulations because their engines are functioning.
In any case, Mekies doesn’t regret the effort put into 2025: “We thought, and we still think, that it was the right thing, because we believed that moving on to 2026 would have been an easy escape and an illusion that next year would be better, even though we didn’t fully understand what the limitations of 2025 were.”
The problem is that with Verstappen possibly having a release clause tied to results, Red Bull could lose its big star because of that gamble.
Images | Red Bull
