Red Bull still does not consider the evolution presented by the RB22 in the 2026 Formula 1 season sufficient. According to Laurent Mekies, team chief, despite having reduced the gap to the leaders from just over a second to about three tenths, the team will only be satisfied when it returns to winning races on its own merit.
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“The mood will not be high until we start winning again,” he told F1.com. “Don’t expect us to be happy with the progress we have made, because it still hasn’t been enough to win races.”
Red Bull faces the possibility of its first winless season since 2015. Four-time world champion Max Verstappen, who has a contract until at least 2030 and could make the team his longest stint in F1 history, has won in every season since his debut at Toro Rosso. Despite this, Mekies sees progress in the car: “From just over a second deficit at the start of the year, we are probably now within the last three tenths [to the front].”
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The executive also recalled that rivals continue to develop their cars: “The competition is not waiting for us; everyone is developing very, very strongly, so the fact that we have managed to reduce the gap to this point is already a great credit to everyone in Milton Keynes.”
“We absolutely still want to try to win races this year,” Mekies added. “Do we think we have enough pace in the car now to win in a fair fight? No. But the pack is tight enough that any of the four teams is in a position to win as soon as one of us doesn’t extract everything from the weekend, or makes the smallest mistake,” concluded the executive.
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