Red Bull team principal Laurent Mekies has confirmed that Max Verstappen is right about a troubling characteristic of the RB22: the car can lose performance as a session or race progresses. The four-time Formula 1 world champion has repeatedly described the phenomenon as a form of “car degradation”, and Red Bull now admits the problem is real, complex and unlikely to disappear quickly.
The issue did not emerge as dramatically during the Spanish Grand Prix at Madring as it had at some previous races, but it remains one of the key technical problems being investigated at Milton Keynes. Mekies says Red Bull made further progress in understanding it during the Madrid weekend, although the team still does not have all the solutions on the car and expects the work to continue into next year.
Max Verstappen continues to maximise a difficult Red Bull RB22
A curious statistic emerged after the Spanish Grand Prix: Verstappen now has six podium finishes this season, more than any driver other than the two Mercedes racers. It underlines the level at which the Dutchman continues to perform despite spending much of 2026 with machinery that has generally operated as the fourth-fastest package.
For Verstappen, the season has often been about extracting everything available from a difficult car and occasionally benefiting when circumstances fall his way. In Madrid, Lewis Hamilton’s retirement and a Virtual Safety Car arriving at an ideal moment helped Verstappen secure second place after such a result had appeared highly unlikely during the opening stages.
The broader difficulties are consistent with the fundamental weaknesses Verstappen has previously identified in the RB22, with balance, rear-end behaviour and energy management all creating problems at different points of the season.
Qualifying in Madrid also exposed limitations on the power unit side. Verstappen explained afterwards that software-management restrictions prevented Red Bull from redistributing electrical energy differently around the lap, costing the team performance in the final sector.
Red Bull investigates performance that fades lap after lap
There is another issue occupying Red Bull’s engineers, however, and it is one that Verstappen has raised particularly strongly during recent Grands Prix. In simple terms, the car’s performance appears to deteriorate progressively, almost as though the RB22 itself were suffering degradation.
Verstappen had already highlighted the phenomenon before the summer break. It became apparent in Hungary, for example, when the Dutchman again began losing confidence and control as the weekend developed. At the time, he explained that Red Bull could identify clear aerodynamic performance losses that were not entirely related to the operation of its rotating rear-wing system.
The problem surfaced again at Monza, where Verstappen complained extensively about the rear of his car in both practice and the race. He described a recurring rear-axle problem that compromised the RB22 even though Red Bull had made progress with its general set-up.
Red Bull is not alone in confronting component-related consistency questions this season. Some teams have discovered measurable performance differences even between parts built to exactly the same specification, adding another layer of complexity to car development and quality control.
Laurent Mekies agrees with Verstappen over ‘car degradation’
According to Verstappen, however, Red Bull’s problem is not something that first appeared in 2026. He believes similar behaviour has affected the Milton Keynes cars for several years.
Mekies has now confirmed that there is substance behind the driver’s description, while making clear that Red Bull does not intend to reveal the precise technical cause or its proposed solutions.
“I don’t think we’re going to explain what it is and how we intend to solve it,” the Red Bull team principal said. “I think Max is right to say that there is a car performance degradation issue that appears during a session and during a race.”
“He is right to say that it is not a new problem. We are not sleeping on it: we have tried to address it in different ways. Obviously, I consider it a complex problem, otherwise we would already have got to the bottom of it. But everyone is working very constructively, trying to take small steps at a time so that we can finally get to the heart of the issue.”
That long-term weakness is particularly relevant as Red Bull considers how to return Verstappen to regular victory contention. Although the Dutchman has extended his Red Bull contract through 2030 while retaining potential exit routes, providing him with a genuinely competitive car remains central to the partnership.
Red Bull makes progress but sees no quick RB22 solution
There was some encouragement in Madrid. Mekies revealed that Red Bull made useful gains in understanding the phenomenon during the Spanish Grand Prix weekend, although those discoveries have not yet translated into a complete technical fix.
“We made a couple of positive steps in that direction over the weekend,” Mekies explained. “It will never be the complete picture, but we certainly made progress in our understanding. We don’t yet have all the solutions on the car. But I’m confident that we are heading in the right direction.”
“It won’t be quick, so it’s something that will probably stay with us into next year as well.”
Mekies understandably declined to reveal the exact mechanisms involved, but confirmed that there are circumstances in which the performance level of certain elements does not remain at its optimum. When that happens, the consequences can be substantial in lap-time terms.
The problem can create different compromises. If a component stops delivering its expected level of performance, the team either accepts the resulting lap-time loss or considers replacing it. The latter solution, however, can have a direct financial impact under Formula 1’s cost constraints.
“It is an aspect of the car’s performance that sometimes does not remain at the optimal level,” Mekies added. “And we are talking about a serious impact on lap time. There is no doubt that everyone is working to improve it in the future.”
For Max Verstappen, the confirmation validates complaints he has made repeatedly during a difficult campaign. For Red Bull, however, understanding the weakness is only part of the challenge. The harder task is eliminating a problem that has persisted for years and which, by Mekies’ own admission, may still influence the team beyond the end of the 2026 season.
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