Johnny Herbert hails Red Bull’s new 2026 engine after making Max Verstappen ‘sandbagging’ claim

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Johnny Herbert and Damon Hill have hailed the job Red Bull Racing have done in the build-up to the start of the 2026 Formula 1 season.

Max Verstappen is seeking to win his fifth drivers’ championship this year, and Red Bull made the risky decision to build their own power units for the first time as part of F1’s changing regulations this year.

Although Verstappen has wished Honda well after their partnership came to an end in the winter, it appears to have been the right call to part ways with the Japanese manufacturer, having seen their struggles during pre-season testing working with Aston Martin.

Red Bull have managed to establish themselves as one of the top four teams in the paddock once again, based on Bahrain testing, but Johnny Herbert and Damon Hill both suspect that they’re capable of more.

Herbert suspects Verstappen wasn’t pushing as hard as he could, while Hill has spotted that Red Bull Powertrains might have built an engine that’s even better than Mercedes’ or Ferrari’s already when it comes to energy deployment.

READ MORE: All you need to know about Red Bull Racing from engine to Ford links

Johnny Herbert and Damon Hill rave about Red Bull and Max Verstappen during Bahrain testing

Speaking on The Race’s Stay on Track Podcast, the pair got onto the topic of Red Bull, and Herbert said: “When I was watching, I could see that there were some purples that came up in the first sector, and then the second sector was not so strong.

“And then I heard comments where they said, ‘Yeah, we’re having problems in that second sector, we’re really struggling, we’re really struggling.’

“And I was sort of going, are you? Are you struggling? Or are you just doing the odd bit of sandbagging?”

Hill replied: “You have to say what an amazing thing to decide to do your own power unit out of the blue, they’re not a car manufacturer, they’re not an engine manufacturer.

“They decided, and that was Christian’s decision, to go and make their own power unit three years ago.

“They poached a lot of people from Honda, I think, I think Honda have lost a lot of talent, and also from Mercedes, I think they’ve poached a lot of good people to come and work there, as you would.

“But they’ve done it, a lot of people are talking about how well the Red Bull power unit deploys and gets out of the corners with a massive deployment of the battery.

“I think that’s a genuine difference that they have.”

Herbert concluded: “It’s very impressive how they’ve been able to get this power unit and whole package so reliable as well. It’s not as if they’ve built something really good and really quick, and it just falls apart after 10 laps; they’ve been mighty impressive with the mileage that they’ve done.”

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Isack Hadjar praised by Laurent Mekies as Max Verstappen’s Red Bull teammate so far

Nobody would rule Verstappen out of championship contention yet, even if Red Bull are more inexperienced when it comes to managing and building their power units.

The Dutchman has been the standout F1 driver of the 2020s, and that’s unlikely to stop any time soon.

However, if Red Bull want to win both championships, then Isack Hadjar must get up to speed quickly.

The Frenchman had a very solid rookie season but suffered more reliability issues than Verstappen during testing, and Hadjar had a crash during the Barcelona shakedown that might have knocked his confidence.

Team principal Laurent Mekies has already hailed Hadjar’s start at Red Bull, and he arrives at the Milton Keynes-based team with a level of confidence that will be essential to avoiding the same fate as his predecessors.

Not only that, but he appears to have been given a car that could be capable of securing the 21-year-old some landmark results in 2026.