The state of play at Red Bull after the first three rounds of the 2026 season

Red Bull and Max Verstappen may have challenged for the Drivers' Championship last year right to the very end, but their 2026 campaign has not gotten off to the best of starts. They lie sixth in the standings, behind Haas and Alpine, with the team ultimately paying the price of their late 2025 push as they chased title glory. With neither Verstappen or Isack Hadjar happy with how the first three rounds have panned out, here is the state of play at Red Bull...

How has the 2026 season gone so far?

Red Bull were named as a team to watch by George Russell at pre-season testing, but the form they showed in Bahrain has yet to translate to the race track.

The team started the last new era in 2022 strongly, but that cannot be said for 2026.

Hadjar impressed in Australia by claiming third on the grid, but Verstappen crashed out of Qualifying in an uncharacteristic display as his car snapped and he was unable to save the spin. Race day did not improve for the team, with the Frenchman parking up with an engine issue, although Verstappen at least recovered from the back of the field to finish sixth.

But China proved even tricker for Red Bull, with both drivers complaining about the car throughout the weekend. Although they qualified in the lower reaches of the top 10 for the Sprint, neither could score in the dash.

Hadjar finished eighth in the Grand Prix in Shanghai, with Verstappen retiring the car with more engine trouble. Both made it to the finish line in Suzuka, but only the Dutchman scored – with a P8 finish.

As such, the team have only scored 16 points this season. Contrast that with Mercedes, who are on 135, and it is easy to see the task facing Red Bull to get back to the front. But first the team need to at least get ahead of the midfield runners, as they are behind Haas and Alpine as it stands.

Reasons to be hopeful

If any team can develop themselves out of a hole, it is Red Bull. They came back very strongly last year after a tricky start, with their mid-season upgrade package nearly taking Verstappen to a fifth consecutive title.

Although the Red Bull Ford Powertrains engine has had reliability issues, it has also shown glimpses of pace. And the team still have one of the greatest of all time in Verstappen behind the wheel.

The other reason Red Bull have to be hopeful is the fact that Hadjar has impressed from word go, and settled into the team well. He has only scored once, but the Frenchman has come a lot closer to matching Verstappen’s pace than some of his predecessors.

He also delivered for the team in Australia in Qualifying after the Dutchman crashed out, when the pressure was on to secure a good grid slot. Hadjar seems the real deal, albeit after a small sample size of races.

Reasons to be cautious

Mercedes’ advantage is such that even some strong in-season development from Red Bull might only get them into the mix with the likes of Ferrari and McLaren this year. The Silver Arrows will not be standing still in this time either, but it remains to be seen if their advantage will grow or shrink.

Red Bull are also running their own power unit, meaning their development needs to be split between that and the chassis as they seek every gain they can find. Reliability has been a concern already, so that could also be a factor heading into Miami and Canada.

Verstappen was vociferous in his criticism of the car over the radio in China, and it remains to be seen if there is anything the team can do on set-up to bring the RB22 into a better working window for the Dutchman.

What have the drivers and team bosses said?

“[P8 is] not really where we want to fight,” Verstappen said after Japan.

“We have a month to analyse everything so we can be more competitive and sort more things with the car. It will be important to work to find a bit more rhythm and understand more about the car, the engine and deployment.

“Everyone is working flat out and doing the best they can and there is a lot that we can do over the next few weeks."

Hadjar was in agreement with his team mate, and the Frenchman has not been shy about voicing his opinions over where the RB22 is lacking either.

“Everyone is working hard to understand the issues, and we now have until Miami to put ourselves in a better position,” was his take.

“We have a lot of work to do and we now have a few weeks to try and find some fixes for those limitations,” explained Laurent Mekies after Japan.

“At the moment, what is important is to work on the performance gap to the guys ahead of us. There is not just one area we can pinpoint as being the cause of our difficulties and we need to work on all areas.

“It feels bad now, but I have full confidence in the team. During the break, we are going to take a deep dive into our data, and take it to our simulator. We won’t have solved everything by the next race, but the team will do the heavy lifting and get to the bottom of our difficulties.”

What do Red Bull need to work on going forwards?

First and foremost, Red Bull need a car that makes their drivers happy. Verstappen has complained about the engine, the balance, understeer and oversteer, so he cannot seem to find any rhythm with any aspect of his RB22.

And while China was the hardest race for the team in terms of managing their drivers’ frustrations, neither Verstappen nor Hadjar were particularly happy in Japan either.

Reliability with the power unit needs to improve, with two DNF results so far from the first three races. And Red Bull could do with working on their starts, especially if they want to start fighting with the Ferraris.

So in short, they need to work on almost everything – but fortunately they have the time to do so.