Juan Pablo Montoya says Red Bull are hiding their true ‘concern’ about their 2026 F1 car

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Red Bull’s debrief after the Barcelona Shakedown will be mixed. The team showed some encouraging signs, but also faced disruption.

Optimism levels were rising at Milton Keynes after a positive day one, with Isack Hadjar topping the times. However, the new signing then crashed at the end of Tuesday’s running.

The team had to ship in spare parts from their UK factory, which meant that Max Verstappen wasn’t able to return to the track until Friday.

Should Red Bull be worried about Isack Hadjar’s testing crash?

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Red Bull still managed 185 laps across their first two days, while sister team Racing Bulls provided 319 laps of data on the new engine. The mileage figures for RBPT’s first offering impressed both outside observers and rival teams.

Juan Pablo Montoya says Red Bull are worried about their 2026 electronics

Red Bull have been keen to emphasise that their power unit has surpassed expectations.

“I have to say, in terms of what we were expecting from the power unit on these first couple of days, I can only repeat how proud we are from everybody back at base to have managed to give us something that we can actually run with,” team principal Laurent Mekies told F1’s official website.

But according to Juan Pablo Montoya, making it out on track was never the main concern at Red Bull. Instead, there are persistent worries over the car’s electronics.

The individual engine components may be performing well, but ‘integration’ will be the biggest challenge for a new manufacturer. It will inherently take time to optimise power delivery.

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“I can give you a little tidbit,” Montoya told AS Colombia. “I know that the Ford engine in the Red Bull already had the reliability and power they were looking for.

“They have been more concerned with the electronic systems than the engine’s reliability for a while now, and they still are.

“They don’t have the… drivability, how well the engine operates, how smoothly the power comes in, the integration of the systems is new.

“Many of the engineers have experience, but they know that when they put it [the engine] in the car, there are going to be problems. The way the power is applied won’t be ideal, there will be glitches. All of that is where I think Red Bull is going to struggle a little bit.”

Isack Hadjar’s surprising verdict on Red Bull’s 2026 F1 car

A potential horsepower deficit, certainly at the beginning of the season, puts Red Bull under even more pressure to nail their chassis.

Unlike most of the field, Hadjar says the new cars don’t ‘feel too different’ from the previous generation. This is a positive signal, because it should make his adaptation process easier.

Hadjar, who drove the 2025 Red Bull at the post-season test in Abu Dhabi, says the RB22 is more ‘predictable’, which also bodes well. Verstappen’s last five teammates have, to varying degrees, struggled with the car’s notoriously knife-edge handling.

James Hinchcliffe has theorised that Hadjar could benefit from Adrian Newey’s exit. While Newey is a legendary figure, he ‘doesn’t really care about the drivers’ feelings’ when designing a car, so the team’s new philosophy may be ‘a little more forgiving’.