Red Bull hopes to make up for ‘significant shortcomings’ before Japan

Laurent Mekies is confident Red Bull can deliver improvements to its car’s performance ahead of the Japanese Grand Prix, following a tough weekend in China.

Max Verstappen and Isack Hadjar both failed to score in the Sprint in China, before Verstappen retired from sixth in the grand prix and Hadjar came home eighth. Both drivers referened difficulties with the RB22’s handling over the weekend, and team principal Mekies says the two-week gap should already allow it to make progress before Suzuka.

“Being on the back foot at the start of a Sprint weekend is the worst possible scenario as there is really little time to catch up and get on top of any difficulties,” Mekies said. “We knew that just getting onto the grid in Melbourne with our own PU was a major achievement in itself and it would have been naïve not to expect we would encounter reliability issues.

“We had to retire Max because of a coolant fault. However, this was not our only issue as overall, performance-wise, our package showed some significant shortcomings. However, we have learned so much over the past few weeks and I expect that we can be more competitive from the next round in Japan in a fortnight’s time.

“After that, the unfortunate but inevitable cancellation of the races in April will give all of us a chance to catch our breath and work as hard as always in Milton Keynes.

“We have a great group of talented people on the campus and I have full confidence that we will get through our current limitations thanks to a massive push from everyone, and improve our package rapidly.”

Even prior to the tough outing in Shanghai Mekies was estimating Red Bull had a second of performance to find compared to Mercedes, but he says 2026 is a year when major improvements are likely to be made throughout the season.

“I’m not sure if worried [about the gap to Mercedes] is the right word,” he said. “It’s large, no question. It didn’t really come as a surprise. We were expecting them to be very, very strong as the pre-season test built up, even though it was not immediately visible at the test. So, not a surprise that it’s large.

“On the other hand, we expect the season to be very long. We expect the development rate to be much higher than what we have seen in the past. Of course, it’s always going to be difficult to get a second back, because obviously they will improve as well, but nobody is giving up here and that is the fight we are in.”