Barcelona GP, Red Bull far behind. Developments in Austria
The Red Bull finished fourth in the Barcelona GP: a mediocre result that cannot satisfy Max Verstappen, both for the points haul and for the gap to leader Lewis Hamilton, a full 40 seconds. The problems of the RB22, as is known, lie in the chassis, an aspect that team principal Laurent Mekies tried to justify with the 2025 championship chase. However, this cannot be enough to explain Red Bull’s initial results, which in 2022 faced the same situation but approached the new technical cycle much better.
To reduce the gap, Red Bull has planned important updates in Spielberg, the home race for the Anglo-Austrian team. Mekies expects the package to bring the RB22 closer to the top and at least partially close a gap that the Frenchman quantifies as half a second.
Mekies’ words
“In Austria we will bring an update package. We hope that we will be able to further reduce the gap. We started with a 1″2 gap from pole and in Monaco we were four hundredths behind, on a circuit where the power unit doesn’t count for much“, this is Mekies’ comment in words reported by AUTOHebdo. “We knew that in Barcelona we would struggle, because we haven’t completely solved the problems in medium and fast corners, but we are confident that the new package will help us. The whole team is working hard to make further improvements and reduce this gap“.
“If we broaden our view, the challenge of the new engine has been enormous. We quickly understood that Powertrains had done an incredible job and that we would be strong on that side. Australia, China and Japan confirmed that the engine is competitive even if there is a gap with Mercedes“, he added. “As for the chassis, there is a deficit caused by the efforts made in 2025 until late in the season. A bit like McLaren, late for the same reason. In addition to these expected problems, others specific ones were added, resolved in Miami with a package that put us on the right track. It’s difficult to say if we will close the gap to Mercedes, given their current supremacy. In Barcelona we faced reality: the race provided a faithful picture of our potential with our current car on this type of circuit; we could compete with the other top teams, but we didn’t have the pace to aim for victory. For this reason, we still need to gain between four and five tenths“.
