Red Bull’s difficult start to the 2026 Formula 1 season exposed all the challenges that came with its transition from a customer team to a full constructor. Across the opening three race weekends, Max Verstappen and Isack Hadjar managed to score just 16 points, with the RB22 performing as a solid midfield contender but nowhere near the front-running battle.
The upgrade package introduced in Miami helped reverse that negative trend, significantly closing the gap to the leading teams. Between Miami and Barcelona, Red Bull reduced its deficit to Mercedes, McLaren and Ferrari by around six tenths of a second compared to the Asian rounds held in March and April.
Now, the second major development package introduced by the Milton Keynes-based squad also appears to have delivered another significant performance gain. However, those encouraging signs will need to be confirmed over the rest of the Silverstone weekend, particularly by improving on what was seen during the opening free practice session.
A major RB22 upgrade package shows promising early signs
The RB22 received extensive modifications, including revised sidepods, cooling inlets and engine cover. The package also features updates to the floor, rear suspension, wheel corner assembly and the small wing mounted above the exhaust, all of which made their debut last Friday and immediately produced encouraging results.
Spielberg was undoubtedly Red Bull’s strongest race weekend of the season for both Max Verstappen and Isack Hadjar. The question now is whether Silverstone and Spa-Francorchamps can provide similarly favourable conditions for Red Bull and the reigning Formula 1 vice world champion.
Red Bull impresses in Spielberg: did strategy cost Verstappen an even better result?
Red Bull’s best weekend of the season coincided with the introduction of the team’s second major upgrade package for the RB22. Before his Q3 accident, caused by an unexpected rear downforce loss while entering Turn 9, Max Verstappen was holding an advantage of one tenth over Kimi Antonelli, with a place on the second row looking comfortably within reach.
The progress made by the Milton Keynes outfit since the beginning of the season has been remarkable. During the opening three races, Red Bull was averaging almost a full second behind Mercedes. Since the Canadian Grand Prix, however, that gap has been reduced to less than two tenths in both qualifying and race trim.
Comparing the opening runs in the final phase of qualifying highlights an excellent level of performance through the medium- and low-speed sections of the lap: [comparison with Mercedes and Ferrari to be completed using data].
By contrast, Mercedes pulled away significantly during the second half of the lap, where the combination of long, high-speed corners and electrical energy limitations played perfectly to the strengths of the Brackley and Brixworth package.
The main weakness of Pierre Waché’s RB22 remains its lack of aerodynamic downforce through very fast corners. This could prove costly at Silverstone, although there is also room for improvement by refining the setup shown in FP1. Even so, this limitation did not significantly affect Red Bull’s competitiveness at either Barcelona or Spielberg.
The power-sensitive nature of the Austrian circuit allowed Red Bull to fully exploit the excellent performance of the RBPT Power Unit, helping the team secure a well-deserved second-place finish.
Race pace was the strongest in Austria
Overall, Max Verstappen’s RB22 delivered the strongest race pace of the entire Austrian Grand Prix weekend. His advantage over George Russell can be estimated at around one tenth of a second per lap, while Kimi Antonelli almost matched the Dutchman’s pace once he escaped traffic during his opening stint.
George Russell ultimately won Saturday’s race after securing a controversial pole position, giving him a comfortable cushion over his closest rivals. For the second consecutive event, the British driver scored more points than his team-mate despite having slightly weaker race pace, allowing him to recover after Antonelli’s streak of five consecutive victories.
From Red Bull’s perspective, there may be some regret over a strategy that was perhaps not fully optimised during the second round of pit stops. Verstappen made his second stop six laps later than Russell, ultimately surrendering around ten seconds.
According to Autoracer.it’s analysis, the tyre performance advantage of roughly two tenths per lap — amounting to around four seconds over the final 20 laps — does not fully explain the amount of time Red Bull lost while the eventual race winner was circulating on fresher tyres. Did Red Bull overestimate tyre degradation during the final stint?
Can Red Bull now fight McLaren and Ferrari?
The positive signs clearly outweigh the few remaining concerns. In Barcelona, Red Bull demonstrated that it could run much closer to the pace of the top three teams on a circuit that traditionally does not suit the RB22 particularly well. Spielberg then confirmed that, on circuits featuring long straights and lower rear tyre demands, Max Verstappen has every chance of taking the fight to Mercedes as well.
The latest upgrades have also contributed to reducing the car’s overall weight. The package was designed to deliver an improvement worth approximately three to four tenths of a second per lap.
McLaren’s less-than-optimal management of its Power Unit, combined with some aerodynamic drag issues, together with Ferrari’s engine limitations — potentially made even more evident by the altitude in Styria — have opened a genuine opportunity for the four-time world champion.
Silverstone and Spa-Francorchamps are among the most demanding circuits of the season from a Power Unit perspective. Can Max Verstappen once again challenge Kimi Antonelli and George Russell?
The very first signs from Silverstone have not been particularly encouraging, but qualifying later this afternoon will provide a much clearer picture. Compared to Ferrari’s SF-26, the RB22 is still lacking aerodynamic downforce, while one of the key talking points this weekend will be Mercedes’ apparent advantage in electrical energy deployment from its Power Unit.
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