Red Bull Racing has been questioned for the performance shown at the beginning of its new phase in Formula 1. For former Ferrari race engineer Rob Smedley, the team should be delivering much more after taking on the challenge of developing its own power unit.
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In a participation on the High Performance Racing podcast, Smedley criticized the number of problems faced by the team throughout the 2026 season so far: “Red Bull should be doing much better. They have had too many basic problems, as Max (Verstappen) said, there is a different problem every weekend or something like that,” he said.
The 2026 season represents an unprecedented challenge for Red Bull, which became responsible for supplying its own power unit after the end of Honda’s technical involvement. The project required the team to develop a new engine practically from scratch, through Red Bull Powertrains-Ford, considerably increasing the complexity of the work.
The problems were not limited to the power unit. The RB22 also showed a lack of reliability and performance, while Verstappen has had to deal with car limitations while facing rivals. Isack Hadjar, in turn, has been showing gradual progress throughout the season.
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Verstappen has managed to achieve some podiums this year, but these results required exceptional performances from the four-time world champion or were favored by problems faced by competitors. The combination of engine difficulties and car limitations has left Red Bull far from the level of competitiveness that marked its recent years of dominance.
Smedley’s assessment increases the questioning about the extent of the problems faced by the team. It remains to be seen whether the difficulties represent only the natural consequences of starting a completely new power unit project or if they point to deeper issues within Red Bull’s structure.
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