Former Ferrari engineer drops scathing assessment on Red Bull's 2026 campaign

Despite Red Bull gradually experiencing an uptick in its form as the 2026 campaign neared the summer break, former Ferrari mechanic Rob Smedley has taken aim at the Austrian outfit, stressing how the team has got to be doing much better than the display it has shown through the first part of the season so far.

Speaking on the High Performance podcast, the 52-year-old British engineer detailed how the team has had to grapple with so many problems, which he dubbed as basic, before highlighting the words of Max Verstappen, who had hinted at the team experiencing varying problems every weekend of the season so far.

"Red Bull should be just doing so much better," he said. "Like, they've had too many basic problems, like Max says, there's a different problem every weekend or something like that," Smedley said.

The 2026 season has so far proven to be a challenging one for Red Bull. The Milton Keynes team is without a race win through the first 11 rounds of the season. However, the team has narrowed the gap to the front-runners and, last time out at the Hungarian Grand Prix, Verstappen finished ahead of both Mercedes drivers, who have proven to be the benchmark of the field so far.

Despite Red Bull's recent improvement, former Formula 1 driver Jolyon Palmer believes Verstappen will not be able to mount another championship comeback this year.

The Dutchman staged a remarkable late-season charge in 2025 after finding himself 104 points behind championship leader Oscar Piastri following the Dutch Grand Prix. At the time, a fifth consecutive world title appeared all but impossible.

However, Red Bull found renewed form under Laurent Mekies' leadership, providing Verstappen with a car capable of challenging for victories again while also capitalising on the flurry of costly mistakes from the McLaren outfit.

Verstappen's fightback ultimately fell just short, finishing two points behind eventual world champion Lando Norris at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. Despite that dramatic recovery last season, Palmer does not expect history to repeat itself in 2026, believing Verstappen's title challenge is already effectively over.