Verstappen urges Red Bull to keep cost cap in mind: 'We can't just do that'

The update package introduced in Austria, which, among other things, eliminated the excess weight from the RB22, appeared to work well, and Verstappen was even in contention for victory at the Red Bull Ring. A week later the picture is completely different, and the Dutchman feels he’s lacking everywhere. After qualifying for the Grand Prix at Silverstone, he was clearly disappointed and pointed out that something isn’t right on his side of the garage.

Teammate Isack Hadjar will start ahead of him on Sunday, and it remains to be seen what they can do to improve the situation. Verstappen wouldn’t label it specifically as ‘bad luck.’ “Everything is just too slow,” he says bluntly to, among others, GPblog. “We have a few too many vague things happening.” The uncertainty about the car’s behavior thus seems to persist, and the options to keep upgrading are dwindling.

It’s already July, and all teams have to take the cost cap into account. Red Bull can’t roll out endless upgrade packages in the hope something sticks. “Of course you have the cost cap,” Verstappen points out. “Then you can’t put a lot of updates on the car. As I said, we have to take the races step by step.” Before the summer break, only the British, Belgian, and Hungarian Grands Prix are on the schedule—three tricky circuits when it comes to energy management.

In that sense, there’s a small parallel with the 2025 season, where Red Bull tried up to the summer break to figure out what kept going wrong. Once again, the Hungarian Grand Prix proved difficult, where Verstappen also endured a frustrating weekend last year. He doesn’t expect improvement at that track in 2026 either, but he also can’t make predictions for the races from Zandvoort onwards. When GPblog asks him whether that turnaround might again come after the summer break, he shakes his head.

“Those were completely different circumstances, I think,” Verstappen says. “That’s hard to say.” The 28-year-old essentially urged his team to throw the entire set-up out and start from the pit lane if necessary. He seems intent on keeping the team sharp, after Red Bull CEO Oliver Mintzlaff stated in Austria that they desperately needed that P2. That indirectly referred to the meeting Verstappen and his management recently had with Red Bull's management in Salzburg.

The theme of Verstappen’s season so far is that there doesn’t really seem to be a theme. The RB22 remains unpredictable, sometimes due to its handling and sometimes due to conditions and circuit-specific factors. There are hardly any upgrades you can produce for that—certainly not from one weekend to the next. Verstappen may be explicitly mentioning the cost cap because Red Bull urgently needs to figure out why this car remains so erratic and can’t deliver consistent performances.

In that respect, McLaren might be in the same boat: a few peak performances, and otherwise the headquarters is poring over the concept with some concern to figure out how to close the gap to the front. Verstappen doesn’t expect that to happen in the coming races, at least. Although his future has been discussed almost (too) often already, this again puts a stamp on the ongoing debate over whether Verstappen will stay with Red Bull or not.