{"id":847956,"date":"2026-08-08T12:20:09","date_gmt":"2026-08-08T12:20:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/847956\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T12:20:09","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T12:20:09","slug":"red-bull-criticism-sparks-ex-ferrari-and-aston-martin-figures-debate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/847956\/","title":{"rendered":"Red Bull criticism sparks ex-Ferrari and Aston Martin figures debate"},"content":{"rendered":"

Red Bull<\/a> should be \u201cdoing so much better\u201d in F1 2026, but instead the team has been blighted by \u201ctoo many basic problems.\u201d<\/p>\n

That is the opinion of former long-serving Ferrari engineer Rob Smedley. Red Bull<\/a> received a more positive review from former Aston Martin and Alpine team boss Otmar Szafnauer.<\/p>\n

Red Bull F1 2026 so far graded by Smedley and Szafnauer<\/p>\n

Want more PlanetF1.com coverage? Add us as a preferred source on Google to your favourites list<\/a> for news you can trust.<\/p>\n

Red Bull finds itself on the outside of the title scene looking in at the summer break. P2 for Max Verstappen in Austria and Hungary serves as his and Red Bull\u2019s best result to date in 2026.<\/p>\n

Even Verstappen was shocked to secure second in Hungary. After qualifying P6, but elevated to fourth on the grid by rival penalties, Verstappen had told PlanetF1.com and others that \u201cI always feel like it\u2019s always a different problem, and that\u2019s for me then also harder to control.\u201d<\/p>\n

Red Bull had reintroduced its own take on the so-called \u2018Macarena\u2019 rear wing in Hungary, after an airflow reattachment issue triggered Verstappen\u2019s spins in Austria and Britain.<\/p>\n

Speaking on the High Performance Racing podcast, Smedley, who remains well-connected with the F1 paddock, gave Red Bull a \u201c5.5\u201d out of 10 for F1 2026 so far, before downgrading his ranking to a \u201c5.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cRed Bull should be just doing so much better,\u201d he bluntly stated.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019ve had too many basic problems.<\/p>\n

\u201cLike Max said, there\u2019s a different problem every weekend, or something like that. I know he was a little bit emotional about it.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut, there is physically something different that pops out every weekend, and it\u2019s always critical. It\u2019s not a contained reliability or operational problem, it\u2019s always something quite big.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think Red Bull should be doing so much better.\u201d<\/p>\n

Szafnauer gave Red Bull an improved rating of a \u201c6\u201d as he pointed to some of the nuances in play this season for the Austrian squad.<\/p>\n

The team introduced its first power unit in F1 2026, developed in partnership with Ford. Despite Red Bull scepticism, the FIA did adjudge Red Bull to possess the best internal combustion engine at the first ADUO checkpoint.<\/p>\n

Red Bull has also lost a plethora of key figures over recent years. Szafnauer gave a nod to former team principal Christian Horner, who was dismissed following the 2025 British Grand Prix, and Helmut Marko, who left Red Bull at the end of last season.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause of their podiums, I\u2019m going to give them a 6,\u201d said Szafnauer.<\/p>\n

Red Bull has scored four podiums so far in F1 2026, all courtesy of Verstappen.<\/p>\n

He continued: \u201cThey did their own powertrain for the first time ever. They\u2019ve done a better job than I anticipated on the powertrain.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019ve lost some key individuals over the last couple of years, including a well-experienced team principal and a special advisor. Some technical people as well.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith all that turmoil of people leaving, they are still competing at a decent level.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think Max probably could have won a race or two this year. I know he hasn\u2019t, but he wasn\u2019t that far off.\u201d<\/p>\n

More on Red Bull from PlanetF1.com<\/p>\n

Max Verstappen Red Bull criticism: World champion told to defend team<\/a><\/p>\n

Red Bull confirms reduced upgrades after \u2018large deficit\u2019 admission<\/a><\/p>\n

Verstappen sits sixth in the Drivers\u2019 standings<\/a> at the summer break. A 2025-esque miracle comeback will be required again if the Dutchman wants to challenge for his fifth world championship. The gap to P1 Kimi Antonelli is 110 points.<\/p>\n

Additional reporting by Thomas Maher<\/p>\n

Want to be the first to know exclusive information from the F1 paddock? Join our broadcast channel on WhatsApp<\/a> to get the scoop on the latest developments from our team of accredited journalists.<\/p>\n

You can also subscribe to the PlanetF1 YouTube channel<\/a> for exclusive features, hear from our paddock journalists with stories from the heart of Formula 1 and much more!<\/p>\n

Read next: Max Verstappen \u2018musical chairs\u2019 but is he leaving Red Bull for McLaren?<\/a><\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Red Bull should be \u201cdoing so much better\u201d in F1 2026, but instead the team has been blighted…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":847957,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[573],"tags":[64,63,817,813,816,818,44,918,85],"class_list":["post-847956","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-f1","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-home-page","tag-news","tag-red-bull","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/847956","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=847956"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/847956\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/847957"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=847956"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=847956"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=847956"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}