Red Bull Racing revealed one of the problems that most affected them at the start of the 2026 Formula 1 season. According to the team’s technical director, Pierre Waché, the RB22 suffered from a mechanical failure in the steering system, which prevented the drivers from properly feeling the car’s behavior.
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The defect added to the existing project limitations and made it difficult for Max Verstappen and Isack Hadjar in the early stages of the championship. Although the team solved the problem by replacing steering components, the fix was not enough to transform the RB22’s performance, which continues to show inconsistent behavior.
In a conversation with the press, Waché explained that the team identified a problem in the rack and steering column, which was responsible for reducing the sensitivity transmitted to the drivers: “We also had some mechanical problems in the car that made the drivers not feel the car through the steering, but we fixed that at the start of the season. It took a little time, but that was an additional problem to the overall performance and potential of the car. There was a difficulty in the drivers’ perception. It’s no secret,” he said.
The director also highlighted that the RB22 continues to present limitations inherent to the concept adopted by the team: “As with any racing car, we see some limitations in how the drivers can use it. The car’s characteristics limit what is possible in terms of balance. We have stability difficulties at corner entry and understeer in the middle of them, and we try to minimize these aspects with mechanical adjustments,” he explained. Waché also added that, at the beginning of the championship, Red Bull also identified a loss of aerodynamic downforce compared to some competitors.
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Previously, the drivers had already publicly expressed these difficulties since the first races of the year. Verstappen described the RB22 as ‘completely impossible to drive’ in the first three rounds and said, during the Chinese GP weekend, that ‘every lap was a matter of survival’. Hadjar also criticized the car after Suzuka, and more recently, at the Hungarian GP, called it ‘impossible to drive’ again, ironically commenting on the team’s progress by saying they had taken ‘a big step backward’.
Even after solving the steering problem and introducing a broad update package in Miami, which reduced weight and revised the RB22’s aerodynamic concept, Red Bull is still seeking to extract consistent performance. Verstappen achieved four podiums in the last seven rounds, but neither he nor Hadjar have been able to regularly repeat the same level of competitiveness throughout the weekends.
