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Major disadvantage for Verstappen? Red Bull takes huge gamble for 2026

12:36, 07 Oct

byLudo van Denderen

Red Bull is keeping Max Verstappen's title chances alive with a series of late updates, but this could come at the expense of the team's 2026 performance.

“Of course it comes at a cost, undoubtedly, to the ‘26 project. But, we feel it's the right trade-off for us without judging what the other guys are doing.”

- Laurent Mekies

With two wins and two second-place finishes, the Dutchman once again has a car capable of fighting for victories after what could be described as a difficult first half of the 2025 campaign.

Updates, such as the new floor brought to Monza, or the latest front wing for Singapore, are now working, unlike what was happening before.

Red Bull works on updates for longer

The Milton Keynes-based team left it longer to bring and test updates on their 2025 challenger. That gives them an advantage over, for example, McLaren, who have decided to leave the MCL39 unchanged for the rest of the year while they concentrate all their efforts on developing the 2026 car.

McLaren's team boss, Andrea Stella, believes that is why Red Bull is slowly closing the gap.

However, Red Bull’s decision could have consequences for next year, as the engineers continue focusing on the RB21 while other teams are devoting more staff to their new cars — and budget cap constraints may also come into play.

Max Verstappen has received updates for a longer period - Photo: Red Bull Content Pool

Laurent Mekies, the team boss of Red Bull, also admits that the team is taking a risk, but he fully backs the decision.

"Certainly, from a Red Bull Racing perspective, even without looking at the other guys around, I think it was [right]," Mekies explained after the Singapore Grand Prix.

He continued: "It is very important that we get to understand if the project has more performance.”

"It's important that we get to the bottom of it, because we will judge, and we will elaborate next year's project with the same tools and with the same methodology, even if the regulations are completely different."

Max Verstappen in Singapore - Photo: Red Bull Content Pool

The work now helps the team for the future

In other words: to check that the tools are reliable, they are now being put to the test.

“It's very important that we validate with this year's car that our way of looking at the data is correct, and that our way of developing the car is correct.

"If we can produce that level of performance, then that will give us confidence over the winter for next year's car.”

But there’s also another side to it. If Red Bull runs into problems now, those could carry over into 2026. After all, a euro can only be spent once.

Mekies concluded: "Of course it comes at a cost, undoubtedly, to the ‘26 project. But, we feel it's the right trade-off for us without judging what the other guys are doing."

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