Racing Bulls have emerged as one of Formula 1’s biggest surprises of 2026, establishing themselves as the team that has arguably impressed most outside the leading four over the opening 11 races. Team principal Alan Permane believes one of the secrets behind that progress lies in lessons learned from a painful development failure two years ago and, above all, the strong correlation Racing Bulls now have between the wind tunnel and the track.
The Faenza-based team has shown that it fully deserves its position around the front of Formula 1’s midfield, effectively establishing itself as the leading challenger behind the top teams. That progress has come despite Racing Bulls not having the much-praised Mercedes power unit, instead running the Red Bull Powertrains engine during its debut Formula 1 season.
The performances of Liam Lawson and Arvid Lindblad have played an important part in that progress, while the wider Racing Bulls driver story during the 2026 season has also attracted attention. The team’s improvement, however, has not come from its drivers alone.
Racing Bulls learned from a painful 2024 upgrade failure
Racing Bulls have progressed consistently thanks in part to a series of effective upgrades that have delivered the expected results. Achieving that is far from guaranteed in modern Formula 1, where teams have only limited opportunities to validate new developments through on-track running.
Speaking about that area, Alan Permane explained, as recently reported by The Race, that the Faenza team has learned from mistakes made in the past. In particular, he pointed to a major upgrade package introduced at the 2024 Spanish Grand Prix that failed to deliver.
“One of the reasons why we’re in such a positive situation today is that, in 2024, we brought a huge upgrade to Barcelona and absolutely nothing on that package worked. It was terrible at the time, but we learned so much about that car, about what makes a car fast and the areas we needed to focus on. It really helped us a lot, even though it was really painful.”
That difficult experience ultimately contributed to a more reliable development process. Rather than simply adding new parts, Racing Bulls have been able to make their upgrade programme more consistent, helping the team remain competitive through the first half of the 2026 campaign. The wider strength of the current grid can also be seen in the latest 2026 Formula 1 standings.
Alan Permane highlights Racing Bulls’ wind tunnel correlation
The British engineer believes the method Racing Bulls now use to introduce upgrades has become both solid and effective. Above all, Alan Permane identified one factor that every Formula 1 technical department strives to achieve: dependable correlation between aerodynamic development work and what the car actually does on the circuit.
“I think what we’re certainly extremely happy about is the correlation between the wind tunnel and the track. That’s what everybody strives for.”
Another element in Racing Bulls’ development structure is its long-established working group in England. From 2025, those staff left the team’s former Bicester facility and moved into a dedicated base located within Red Bull’s Milton Keynes campus.
Strict intellectual-property regulations mean the arrangement cannot provide Racing Bulls with a direct advantage in terms of Red Bull know-how. However, using the new facility has significantly improved the working process for the aerodynamic and model-making departments, making the implementation of new components considerably more streamlined.
The wider structure of the Racing Bulls operation on the 2026 Formula 1 grid has therefore evolved alongside the technical regulations and the arrival of the new Red Bull Powertrains era.
More Racing Bulls upgrades are coming as 2027 work begins
Alan Permane also stressed the amount of work behind Racing Bulls’ improvement and outlined the areas the team still intends to develop in the short term. Increasing downforce is now the main priority, even as work on the 2027 car has already begun.
“There are plenty of upgrades coming and things we can do to go faster, but the most important one will be increasing the downforce. That’s what we’re focusing on and I know what we’ve got coming. We’re already working on the 2027 project and there will be an overlap phase, but there will come a point when we switch completely to the new project.”
For Racing Bulls, the challenge is therefore to continue extracting performance from the current car while managing the inevitable transition towards 2027. The progress made so far suggests that the team’s development process has become one of its strongest assets, with a failed 2024 upgrade now forming part of the lessons behind its much more convincing 2026 campaign.
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