(Motorsport-Total.com) – Red Bull Racing’s catch-up race in the 2026 season is in full swing. After the racing team around world champion Max Verstappen struggled with enormous deficits of over a second at the beginning of the year, they are gradually working their way back to the top with the RB22.
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Nevertheless, the question remains open whether it will be enough for race wins this year – be it through Verstappen or his teammate Isack Hadjar. “It’s hard to say. But achieving race wins this year is exactly what we are striving for,” explains Red Bull’s Technical Director Pierre Waché in Hungary.
“We are continuously trying to improve the car and have a clear development plan until the end of the year.” They want to use every opportunity to better understand the regulations and learn how updates affect the car’s characteristics.
However, restrictions are imposed by the regulatory limits on development efficiency (wind tunnel and CFD times). Nevertheless, Waché sets the direction: “Everything we can do to make the car capable of winning – whether for Max or Isack – we will do.”
Lack of Downforce and Steering Concerns at the Start of the Season
Waché attributes Red Bull’s lagging behind after its dominant past to the long title fight of the previous season. Similar to competitor McLaren, they had invested resources in the previous year’s car for an extremely long time. “We started very late with the new car. In addition, other teams simply did a very good job,” the Frenchman openly admits.
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At the beginning, the technical hurdles of the RB22 included not only deficits in pure downforce – “we simply lacked load compared to the others” – but also mechanical teething problems. “We had mechanical quirks in the car, which meant the drivers didn’t have a proper feel through the steering wheel. It took some time to correct that,” reveals Waché.
Balance Limits Slow Down Verstappen and Hadjar
Although Red Bull has made progress through weight reductions and aerodynamic updates, fundamental weaknesses of the current package remain. “As with any racing car, we certainly see limits in the balance,” explains the chief engineer.
Especially the stability when turning into the corner and understeer in the middle of the corner are causing problems for the drivers. “We are trying to compensate for these characteristics with mechanical set-up tools,” says Waché.
Despite the remaining challenges, he draws a positive interim balance for the team: “We are not yet where we want to be, but the progress we have made as a team is very encouraging.”
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