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Team principal Laurent Mekies does not feel Red Bull are “worried” about their early deficit to Mercedes in 2026, as they expected they would face a “large gap” this year.
Red Bull have started the new campaign with a clear deficit to the top teams, with the RB22 not able to consistently emerge as the third or fourth-fastest car so far. Max Verstappen and Isack Hadjar also scored just eight and four points respectively over the opening two rounds.
Reliability problems have played a part in Red Bull’s lack of points, after Hadjar was forced to retire in the Australian Grand Prix because of an engine failure and Verstappen retired in the Chinese GP due to a coolant fault. But Verstappen was only running in P6 when he stopped.
Also, Verstappen failed to overtake Haas’ Oliver Bearman in the Chinese GP, with the Briton consistently able to hold a two-second margin over the Dutchman once they settled into P5 and P6. Verstappen called Sprint Qualifying in China a “disaster”, too, after only securing P8.
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Laurent Mekies is not ‘surprised’ that Red Bull have a ‘large’ deficit to Mercedes
The Shanghai International Circuit also proved that the Red Bull RB22 has an inherent lack of downforce, which created the balance problems that angered Verstappen so much in China. But team principal Mekies is not surprised that Red Bull have a deficit to Mercedes this year.
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Mekies fully expected Mercedes to lead the way in the 2026 F1 season after seeing the W17 during pre-season testing. So, while Verstappen and Hadjar have not been close to rivalling George Russell and Andrea Kimi Antonelli, Mekies is not “worried” about Red Bull’s deficit.
“I’m not sure if worried is the right word,” Mekies said, via RACER. It’s large, no question. It didn’t really come as a surprise. We were expecting them to be very, very strong as the pre-season test built up, even though it was not immediately visible at the test.
“So, not a surprise that it’s large. On the other hand, we expect the season to be very long. We expect the development rate to be much higher than what we have seen in the past.
“Of course, it’s always going to be difficult to get a second back, because obviously they will improve, as well. But nobody is giving up here, and that is the fight we are in.”
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Hadjar was the fastest non-Mercedes driver during qualifying for the Australian GP, during which Verstappen crashed without posting a lap time in Q1. Yet the Frenchman was 0.785 seconds slower than Russell’s pole lap and 0.492s slower than Antonelli’s time for second.
Qualifying only got worse for Red Bull in China, too, with Verstappen their quickest driver in Sprint Qualifying in P8 but with a 1.734s deficit to Russell’s pole time. Verstappen was even 0.938s slower than Russell during qualifying for the Grand Prix, as he again only secured P8.
Verstappen still has faith in Red Bull, despite his frustrations with F1’s 2026 regulations. But Red Bull need to work quickly on delivering upgrades for the RB22 to be capable of fighting Alpine and Haas, let alone eyeing McLaren for best of the rest behind Mercedes and Ferrari.
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