Red Bull Racing is going through a difficult moment in Formula 1, with the Milton Keynes-based team failing to meet expectations. After three Grands Prix, the team sits only sixth in the Constructors’ Championship, behind surprising rivals such as Haas and Alpine, marking a significant drop in competitiveness compared to recent dominant seasons.
The RB22 is currently suffering from serious chassis and aerodynamic limitations, issues that technical director Pierre Waché is actively working to resolve. However, the problems are not limited to aerodynamics alone, as the car is also being affected at the start of races by its turbo configuration.
At this stage, Red Bull’s power unit remains powerful in terms of overall performance, but it carries a specific weakness that becomes particularly visible in race starts and low-speed acceleration phases.
For Red Bull, this is a clearly difficult period. The departure of Gianpiero Lambiase, Max Verstappen’s trusted chief race engineer, set to leave in 2028, is seen as just another symptom of a wider structural decline within the organisation. The Milton Keynes team, which is currently second in the 2025 Drivers’ Championship with Verstappen after three races, has collapsed to sixth place in the Constructors’ standings with just 16 points, level with Alpine and behind the surprising Haas team.
The overall picture is increasingly clear: Red Bull no longer appears to operate like a top team, as the gradual departure of key figures seems to have drained some of the performance potential that once made it the dominant force in Formula 1.
So what is really happening? The numbers are concerning. On average, Red Bull is currently 0.97 seconds off the fastest qualifying pace and as much as 1.26 seconds slower than Mercedes in race conditions. From a historical perspective, the RB22 can be considered the weakest Red Bull car in the last 11 years, with comparisons taking us back to the 2015 season to find a similarly worrying competitive deficit.
At the beginning of the hybrid era in 2014, Red Bull’s main weakness was the Renault power unit, but even then the gap to dominant Mercedes was around 0.83 seconds per lap. Despite that deficit, the team was still able to remain the second strongest force in the championship at the time.
Compared to that period, one key conclusion emerges: the main problem of the current Red Bull is not strictly the RBPT Ford DM01 power unit. In fact, data from Australia, China, and Japan shows that top speed has remained competitive and in some cases even stronger than Ferrari on the straights.
The real difficulties appear in cornering performance, particularly in medium-speed sections such as sector two in China and the high-speed S curves in Japan. The decision to continue developing the RB21 until the end of the 2025 season in pursuit of a fifth title for Max Verstappen has delayed the development of this year’s car.
In addition, the RB22 was designed in the Bedford wind tunnel, which is now the oldest in the paddock, while Red Bull continues to wait for the completion of its new modern facility at the Milton Keynes campus.
Further evidence comes from comparing the RB22 with Racing Bulls. The Faenza-based sister team, which is just two points behind the main Red Bull outfit, does not achieve extreme straight-line speeds but shows better cornering performance. This suggests that the RB22 lacks aerodynamic downforce and is also carrying excess weight, which at the start of the season was estimated to be around 20 kilograms.
Technical director Pierre Waché is prioritising the upgrades needed to fix the situation. At the Miami Grand Prix, a significantly updated version of the RB22 is expected to appear, featuring major corrections and performance-focused revisions. Contrary to online speculation, Waché is not under threat of dismissal, but is instead working intensively to recover competitiveness.
A large part of the weight issue stems from the need to meet strict regulatory weight distribution requirements, influenced not only by power unit packaging but also chassis integration constraints. A significant weight reduction programme is already planned, alongside continued aerodynamic development, although some of the limitations are also linked to the power unit itself.
Like Mercedes, Red Bull has also adopted a large turbo design on its six-cylinder engine. However, as with the Silver Arrows, this choice creates a disadvantage at race starts due to the absence of the MGU-H, which was removed under the current regulations. This results in a more pronounced turbo lag compared to Ferrari’s power unit, which has demonstrated a clear advantage in the opening lap phases across the first three races.
It may sound surprising, but data suggests that Ferrari’s engine has gained up to 25 positions collectively during the first laps of the three races so far. Behind Ferrari’s 067/6 power unit, the Honda unit used by Aston Martin also stands out for strong initial acceleration performance.
The Japanese power unit, although considered uncompetitive in overall performance and lacking around 90 horsepower, benefits from a smaller turbo design. Combined with Fernando Alonso’s exceptional racecraft, this has produced remarkable starts, gaining up to 14 positions on the opening lap and outperforming Mercedes in certain scenarios.
Interestingly, Mercedes customer teams based in Brixworth appear to perform better at race starts than the factory team itself. Overall, Mercedes has gained around eight positions on the opening lap across the opening races, while the Red Bull–Ford power unit has lost as many as 21 positions. Only Audi has performed worse, losing 26 positions with just two cars on the grid.
According to internal rumours, the Red Bull internal combustion engine is not far behind the Mercedes AMG M17 E Performance in pure performance terms. However, it is unlikely to be included in the ADUO (Additional Development and Upgrade Opportunities) group, meaning the team risks carrying this limitation into the next season as well.
For Max Verstappen, who is widely recognised for his explosive race starts and ability to gain positions immediately off the line, this could become a particularly serious problem if the issue is not resolved in the near future.
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