Rare Verstappen mistake masks Red Bull’s huge progress

Looking back to the start of the 2026 F1 season, it’s almost unthinkable where Red Bull Racing stands now. In Australia and China, Red Bull proved miles off the top and looked almost like a midfield team. The RB22 wasn’t among the top four—worse yet, it was even beaten by drivers from Haas and Racing Bulls.

After the Chinese Grand Prix, a crisis meeting was held. Red Bull team principal Laurent Mekies skipped the media session after the Grand Prix and boarded Max Verstappen’s plane. Pierre Waché was also present at that meeting, because it was clear something had to change.

In Japan, Red Bull came with an update package, but it didn’t work at all. Max Verstappen received the updates, Isack Hadjar didn’t. Qualifying said enough: Verstappen didn’t even make it to Q3, while teammate Hadjar did. In the race, Verstappen finished ahead of his teammate, but still behind Pierre Gasly’s Alpine.

After the Japanese GP, Verstappen was critical. He planned to take the month off to think about what he wanted. The Dutchman wasn’t just critical of the regulations, but also of his team. While everyone had accounted for a weaker engine, it was mainly the car designed by Red Bull that disappointed. Laurent Mekies knew what Red Bull had to do to keep Verstappen in the sport and with the team: build a better car.

In Miami, Red Bull clearly seems to have succeeded. The five-week break was used well—first to solve a number of issues with the car, but above all to complete the substantial update package for the race in the United States. The result speaks for itself. The steering system now works again, and together with the updates it allowed Verstappen to start on the front row for the Miami Grand Prix.

A rare mistake by Verstappen meant the final result may have been a bit disappointing, although it was the same Verstappen who, miraculously, didn’t crash after the spin and still finished fifth after an impressive recovery drive. The spin in the first sequence of corners dropped Verstappen far back, and the team opted for an early pit stop. Verstappen was competitive on both compounds and even fought his way back to fifth place. Given that pace, it’s fair to assume that P3 was the minimum Verstappen could have achieved.

“At least I could fight with the guys in front of me. Unfortunately, that hard compound didn’t seem to work very well for us,” Verstappen told GPblog. “I think we were a bit more competitive, but the hard tire just didn’t work and the stint was too long.”

According to Andrea Stella, the top four are now very close together, with Mercedes holding a very small advantage. Asked whether Verstappen also feels Red Bull is truly in the mix now, the four-time world champion said: “We’re getting there, but we’re not quite at that level yet.”

Team principal Mekies also saw the step forward, but he too remained cautious. “It’s clearly a step forward. In Japan we were 1.2 seconds off pole, in China 1 second off pole. The competition won’t wait with their updates—everyone brought updates here. So we knew our developments had to be good.”