During several weekends this season, Verstappen has complained that the Red Bull Formula 1 car gets worse over the course of a session or race. It usually happens at the rear axle, including during qualifying at Monza, where Verstappen called the RB22 “a car made of paper”.
Notably, the four-time world champion added that he has been complaining about this internally for years. According to Verstappen, Red Bull has been struggling with car degradation during a session for multiple seasons, which is remarkable given that the 2026 car is completely new following the overhaul of the technical regulations.
It raises the question of why the problem is so persistent and whether Red Bull now finally understands what is behind it.
When Autosport puts those questions to Red Bull team principal Laurent Mekies, the Frenchman replied: “I don’t think we are going to explain what it is and how we are going to fix it. But I think Max is right [in saying] that there is an element of car performance degradation that is happening through a session and through a race.
“He’s also right in saying that it’s not a new issue. We are not sleeping on it. We have been trying to tackle that in different ways.
“I consider it a complex issue. Otherwise, we would get to the bottom of it. But everyone is very constructive about it and we are trying to make small steps at the time to be able to finally get to the bottom of it.”
Verstappen said at Monza that the Red Bull car is “made of paper” after he suffered from “car degradation” during qualifying
Photo by: Alex Bierens de Haan / Getty Images
As for those small steps, Mekies says several lessons were learned on the Saturday in Monza, when Verstappen voiced his frustration, and Red Bull tried to put those lessons into practice in Madrid. The problem did not occur during F1’s first visit to the Madring, or at least not to the same extent.
“We had a couple of positive steps in that regard this weekend,” Mekies said. “It will never be the full picture, but we certainly have, through pain, made progress into our understanding. We don’t have all the solutions on the car yet, but I trust that we are in the right way. It will not be fast, so it’s something that will probably take us through next year.”
In doing so, Mekies acknowledges what Verstappen had already hinted at earlier: some problems simply cannot be fixed this season and require bigger changes to the design and chassis for 2027.
The fact that Red Bull is limited in what it can do for the remainder of this year is partly because the budget cap will come into play at some point and because the focus behind the scenes has already shifted to 2027, but also because certain changes simply cannot be made to the RB22.
Mekies therefore acknowledges that the issue could occur more often in the remaining races this year, although he does not want to go into further detail about exactly what is behind it.
“I’m not going to give any more details here. But as I said, it’s true that there are some aspects of the car performance that sometimes don’t stay at the optimum level. And that’s serious lap time,” he said.
If Verstappen does not win a Grand Prix this season, it will be the first year since 2015 without a race win
Photo by: Sam Bagnall / Sutton Images via Getty Images
“So, it’s something we [need to get on top of]. There is no doubt that we have everyone trying to improve that for the future.”
For this year, Verstappen already knows that there is little left for him to fight for. The Dutchman acknowledged early on that he is not a factor in the title fight and can only hope for a race win.
Should he fail to achieve that, it would be the first time since 2015, when Verstappen was still driving for Toro Rosso – now Racing Bulls. Since his promotion to Red Bull in May 2016, the Dutchman has won at least one grand prix every year.
We want to hear from you!
Let us know what you would like to see from us in the future.
Take our survey
– The Autosport.com Team
Read the full article here