The Milton Keynes team, victorious at Suzuka over the past four years, debuted a package of upgrades in Japan that has made the RB22 more difficult to drive. However, this is just the first step in the car’s development.
Red Bull continues to struggle. Max Verstappen finds himself down in tenth place on Friday’s timing sheets, while Isack Hadjar—usually closer to the Dutchman than other teammates—is fifteenth. The Japanese Grand Prix has not started well for the Milton Keynes squad, which has historically dominated here with “Super Max” winning the last four editions.
A traditional hunting ground has become… a nightmare. What is happening with the RB22? It’s a fair question, as this car brought the most technical updates to Suzuka. Laurent Mekies doesn’t look for excuses: the team principal admits the car is something of a mystery. The Frenchman is analytical: “We are very far off, we’re missing a lot of performance. We haven’t been able to give the drivers a car they can really push. That’s why we have several important things to focus on. It’s part of the game, and we’re only at the beginning of the season.”
Disappointment, but not despair. It’s not the style of a team that knows how to be “ruthless.” Some might blame the RBPT DM01 engine: the 2026 power unit is their first as a Constructor. But it would be wrong—very wrong—to place the responsibility on Ben Hodgkinson’s staff, because the hybrid unit is actually one of the strong points that the RB22 perhaps isn’t fully exploiting.
Two figures tell the story: Max Verstappen recorded the second-highest top speed at 333 km/h, and during the super clipping phase, for battery recharge, Red Bull loses 53 km/h—exactly like Mercedes. The engine may not be the best in the paddock, but it performs well for a debuting power unit.
So the investigation must be focused elsewhere, with the understanding that some of the performance deficit could be caused by the car itself. Another fact that cannot be ignored is weight: the RB22 carries roughly twenty kilos over the minimum. That alone costs at least six tenths, less than half of the 1”376 gap that “Super Max” suffered in free practice.
It’s reasonable to think that Pierre Waché’s technical team has started slimming the car down, introducing a significant upgrade package. A quick look at the radiator inlets shows a noticeably narrower cooling intake with a more profiled entry toward the outer side of the sidepod, which has been completely redesigned with a deeper undercut to enhance the downwash effect.
The modifications don’t stop there: Max Verstappen’s RB22 sidepod upper section slopes down to the floor, while Hadjar’s still had a sort of “Grand Canyon” in front of the CocaCola section, with a very different flow pattern.
The engine cover has also been redesigned to sit closer to the mechanical components, reducing drag and improving rear wing efficiency. It’s possible the aerodynamic center of pressure has shifted, affecting rear balance and making the car trickier than usual in high-speed corners. It’s very likely that the RB22 will require more precise setup work, especially as rear-end flows have been revised with a different rear corner design.
We know how skilled the Milton Keynes engineers are at overnight simulator work, but let’s not fool ourselves into thinking they can completely revolutionize Max’s car behavior. It’s more likely that what was seen at Suzuka is just the first package in the RB22’s development journey during the enforced break before returning to Miami.
What seems like a problematic car today may only be in the first step of development, and we’ll see the RB22 truly “blossom” later in the season. Max Verstappen, therefore, will need to exercise some patience.
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