Red Bull RB22 weight crisis: Pierre Waché confirms 2026 pre-season struggles. Red Bull faces a major issue with car weight at the start of the 2026 F1 season.

F1 | Major problem for Red Bull: 2026 season starts with clear disadvantage

Attention to the latest news coming from Red Bull: the new RB22 is facing an issue that could affect the start of the 2026 F1 season. Despite some drivers’ comments suggesting the car is a favorite, there is one particular aspect that is not making the Milton Keynes team smile.

The new cars have not impressed Max Verstappen, who described them as “FE on steroids,” and now another problem is emerging. At the beginning of a new regulatory cycle, car weight becomes crucial, as not all teams reach the minimum weight limit at the same time. This is precisely the issue affecting the new RB22, as confirmed by Pierre Wache.

Overweight cars

Even at the start of the previous generation of cars, Red Bull had complained about weight issues. The current Red Bull technical director, Pierre Wache, stated that the Austrian team will have to tackle this problem again at the beginning of the season. “We have some issues with the car’s weight, but other teams are facing the same problem,” he explained.

He also added that it is not an easy problem to solve: “There is a chance that other teams may handle it better than us. On our side, we need to ensure we can slim down the car a bit, so that with future updates we won’t have to think about making it potentially lighter. This way, we can focus entirely on making it faster.”

As mentioned, in 2022 Red Bull faced the same weight issue against Ferrari at the start of the year. However, with updates introduced during the first months, the RB17 became the absolute dominant car of that championship. Wache hopes the path will be the same this time, even though he believes “the situation is already better than in 2022.” If Red Bull can solve the weight issue quickly, the RB22 could soon become the benchmark for this new regulatory cycle as well.

Red Bull’s admission regarding the RB22’s weight highlights the immense engineering challenge posed by the 2026 regulations, which mandate a 30kg reduction to a 768kg minimum limit despite heavier hybrid components. While Pierre Waché’s transparency suggests a “clear disadvantage” in the opening rounds, his confidence that the team is in a better position than in 2022 should serve as a warning to the rest of the grid. If the RB22 follows the same development trajectory as its predecessor, its current “overweight” status may be nothing more than a temporary hurdle on the path to another dominant cycle.