(Motorsport-Total.com) – Racing Bulls is one of the positive surprises in the 2026 Formula 1 season. The team based in Faenza is the only squad to have scored points with both drivers in the last five Grands Prix. This has established Racing Bulls in the fight for the top position in the midfield and puts them on par with Alpine.
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A key factor is the balance of the VCARB 03. Racing Bulls has earned a reputation in recent years for developing docile and predictable cars that provide drivers with a stable tool to work with.
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That this concept works was already shown in 2025 when Yuki Tsunoda moved to Red Bull. The Japanese driver admitted at the time that he was reluctant to leave the VCARB 02 behind because he had great confidence in his car.
Independent development approach
Although Racing Bulls uses several transferable components from Red Bull, including the suspension for example, the team follows its own approach in vehicle development.
Sportingly, Red Bull remains clearly ahead of Racing Bulls, with 69 points currently separating the two teams in the constructors’ standings, but on a fast lap the RB22 fundamentally has higher potential. Especially in slow corners, the car can carry more minimum speed. In Silverstone, Isack Hadjar gained about four tenths of a second over Liam Lawson and Arvid Lindblad alone in the Luffield and Club corners.
On the straights, however, there are hardly any differences. The four Red Bull Ford cars usually move within a range of about two km/h in top speeds. Racing Bulls mainly lacks some downforce, while the team apparently gets the maximum out of the available package in terms of energy usage and powertrain deployment.
Continuous updates bring steady progress
Another plus is the continuous development of the car. Since the new floor in Montreal and smaller adjustments to the diffuser and floor edges in Barcelona, Austria, and Silverstone, Racing Bulls has been able to improve its performance step by step. While Red Bull’s update in Spielberg initially brought progress, it did not pay off in Silverstone.
Liam Lawson sees the updates brought as an important reason for the upward trend: “It has really been working very well lately. Everything we brought to the car was positive and worked as expected. Every weekend we find a little more lap time.”
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About the latest update, the New Zealander says: “It was just a small step, but everything is developing in the right direction. We already had a fast car in Austria. That helps us now to build on it.”
Strong start to the weekend as a success factor
It is also particularly important to have a good start to each race weekend: “The crucial point is that we started very well already in the first free practice. We hardly had to change anything and only did fine-tuning. Overall, that made our race car significantly faster,” Lawson continues.
That is exactly where Racing Bulls currently differs from Red Bull. While Red Bull has often struggled with difficult Fridays this season and had to look for solutions overnight with the help of simulator drivers, Racing Bulls usually manages to bring the car into the optimal working window from the first practice session. This advantage makes setup work easier and ensures more consistency throughout the weekend.
Racing Bulls has also recently been very reliable at race starts. After a failed start by Lawson at the season opener in Australia, the team worked specifically on the procedures. Since then, Lawson has gained positions in almost every Grand Prix in the first few meters.
Permane: Calm and procedures decide the weekend
Team principal Alan Permane explains: “We use the same engine, the same gearbox, and mostly start on the same tires. So the three most important components for the start are identical.”
What is decisive is rather the procedures and communication with the drivers: “Starts with these engines are difficult. The drivers have to work hard and we have to keep them calm. Sometimes power suddenly drops on the formation lap. Then they immediately think of the worst. We then tell them: ‘Don’t worry. The temperatures are not yet in the right range, but everything will work.’ So far, that has worked well for us.”
The current form of Racing Bulls shows that absolute vehicle performance alone does not decide success. Constant development, a well-manageable car, and clean procedures at the race track as well as in team communication currently give the team from Faenza a noticeable advantage in the tight midfield and especially compared to Red Bull.