Red Bull Racing is facing its worst start to a Formula 1 season since 2015. With only 16 points scored after three rounds, the team acknowledges it is dealing with complex issues with this year’s car and trying to understand the drop in performance.
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This situation becomes even more delicate in the face of Max Verstappen’s growing frustration with the category’s new technical rules. The Dutch driver finished only in eighth place at the Japanese GP and has shown dissatisfaction with the energy management-based racing style currently required.
Verstappen is experiencing his most difficult start to a season since 2016. The driver appears only ninth in the championship, with 12 points, and managed to advance to Q3 only once, in China, after suffering a crash in Q1 in Australia and being eliminated in Q2 in Japan.
As a team, Red Bull has 16 points with Verstappen and Isack Hadjar, a performance that represents the worst start since 2015, when it had scored only 13 points in the first three races. Team principal Laurent Mekies acknowledged that the current situation requires a significant technical reaction.
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According to Mekies, the performance of the RB22 is close to what was expected, but the team is still unable to extract the car’s potential: “We left Melbourne thinking we were a second behind Mercedes and half a second behind Ferrari,” he stated. He also highlighted that in Australia, McLaren seemed closer, with Verstappen advancing from twentieth place and closing in on the British team’s lead car, Lando Norris.
The official explained that the gap to the opponents increased in China and that the balance issues and car characteristics became more evident: “We are dealing with a combination of lack of performance and difficulty in extracting the maximum from the package to give Max something he can fight with,” said Mekies, adding that the team is ‘struggling’ with the car and trying to identify complex limitations.
Despite the difficult moment, Mekies showed confidence in the team’s reaction: “Solving complex problems is our core business. It might look bad now, but this is exactly what Red Bull is structured for, to understand these limitations and fix them,” he concluded, adding that updates should help improve performance in the coming races.
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