{"id":832184,"date":"2026-07-28T21:00:18","date_gmt":"2026-07-28T21:00:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/832184\/"},"modified":"2026-07-28T21:00:18","modified_gmt":"2026-07-28T21:00:18","slug":"red-bull-hasnt-won-a-race-so-far-this-f1-season-but-the-team-sees-a-brighter-second-half","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/832184\/","title":{"rendered":"Red Bull Hasn\u2019t Won a Race So Far This F1 Season, But the Team Sees a Brighter Second Half"},"content":{"rendered":"

A victory for Lando Norris and McLaren in the Hungarian Grand Prix<\/a> means that only one of the big four Formula 1 teams \u2014 Mercedes, Ferrari, McLaren, and Red Bull \u2014 has failed to win a race in the first half of the 2026 season. What makes that fact even more painful for Red Bull Racing and new power unit source Ford<\/a> is that they have never really come close to winning a race on merit and pure performance.<\/p>\n

And not winning, or at least not being a contender, is an unfamiliar situation for Max Verstappen<\/a>. He\u2019s regularly voiced strong opinions about the handling of the difficult RB22, and he didn\u2019t hold back when he was twice thrown off the road by the trick \u2018macarena\u2019 rear wing not operating effectively.
<\/p>\n

There are two main reasons for the under-performance. Firstly, the team put a lot of resources into last year\u2019s title campaign, to the detriment of preparations for 2026 \u2014 whereas Mercedes and Ferrari could switch focus earlier. Secondly, the move to the in-house Ford power unit was a bold step, one that soaked up a lot of resources. It has perhaps worked out better than anyone anticipated in terms of performance, but there have been some reliability issues, and getting off the starting line wasn\u2019t easy.<\/p>\n

By way of comparison, last year didn\u2019t start particularly well for Verstappen or his team, but after round 11 he was still in third place with 155 points. At the same stage this season, he\u2019s in sixth, with 109 points. The big difference is that, despite a tricky car in 2025, he had won two races by now. This time around, Verstappen has had to settle a best result of second place, achieved first in Austria and again \u2014 to the surprise even of himself \u2014 in Hungary.
<\/p>\n

That penultimate spot on the podium was unexpected because the car had been difficult all weekend, and he spun on his last run in qualifying as he tried to tame it. Having been only sixth-fastest, he was quick to complain about how just how hard it was.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe weekend in general has been difficult,\u201d he said when asked about his troubles by Road & Track before the race. \u201cBut when, instead of the tires degrading, your car is degrading, then you have a big problem. So that’s what’s happening. The car just kept getting worse and worse, lap after lap. So the more laps I did, it was just more and more difficult to put a lap together. And for tomorrow as well, we need to fix that, because the car is not drivable like this, as you could see in the final corner. You just turn in \u2014 the car is, like, non-existent on the rear. So it’s really crazy.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"F1<\/p>\n

NurPhoto\/\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

That didn\u2019t bode well for the race, but in typical Verstappen fashion, the Dutchman made the best of what he had. Penalties for others moved him up from P6 to P4 on the grid, then he gained another spot at the start, with only the two McLarens still ahead. Lewis Hamilton jumped him with an earlier pit stop, but Verstappen responded with a brilliant pass, sailing past both Liam Lawson and the Ferrari driver in one move. Later, the team made a great call when it put him on soft tires for the stint to the flag. He found himself in the runner-up spot, helped by a late retirement for Oscar Piastri. He beat Ferrari and Mercedes fair and square.<\/p>\n

\u201cI still don\u2019t really understand how we are second,\u201d Verstappen smiled afterwards. \u201cBut I think as a team, we performed strongly. I see it as a bit of an over-performance compared to what we expected \u2014 so I guess that\u2019s, of course, a good thingm considering how everything felt.\u201d<\/p>\n

Team boss Laurent Mekies agreed that the result was better than anyone in the camp had predicted. \u201cWe felt Lando and the two Ferraris would be out of touch,\u201d said the Frenchman. \u201cAnd we felt we could race Mercedes, and probably Oscar. As it turned out, we could race both Ferraris, and Lando was out of reach. So very well done to the pit wall and to the whole team back home \u2014 the tire group, the strategy group. I think as a whole race execution has been very, very strong here. We have suffered at the beginning of the year with our starts; we are now managing to produce decent starts, strong pit stops, [and] very strong strategy, as always. So certainly very happy with the way the team has been operating in these last few races, and certainly, back to the standard it’s known for.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"F1<\/p>\n

NurPhoto\/\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Good race execution and being there to take advantage when others don\u2019t optimize their weekends is one thing, and as Mekies suggests, is a reflection of the team\u2019s status as a regular championship contender. However, Verstappen and teammate Isaac Hadjar need a faster and more consistent car, one with a balance that inspires confidence.
<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we never managed to give Max and Isaac a car they could they could push with,\u201d Mekies said of Hungary after the race. \u201cThat was never the case this weekend. Certainly worse on Friday and Saturday, compared to today \u2014 but still, today, I have to say that it probably was still not giving a very good feeling to the drivers.\u201d
<\/p>\n

However, Mekies could still see a half-full glass given Verstappen\u2019s pace on Sunday.
\u201cI think it’s fair to say that only Lando was clearly faster than Max today,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd I think everyone else, he could have matched or beaten. I guess it’s positive, because it means we have margin to improve with the current package, and we will try to see why we are so much on the edge of car balance \u2014 car performing, car not performing. It’s been hard work for, certainly, the drivers, but also the team in these last few races to keep the car in its window.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Laurent<\/p>\n

Marco Canoniero\/\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it’s about consistency of the delivery of the performance, and it’s been a topic for us this season, and it’s probably where some of the potential improvement is in the second part of the year,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Progress is being made, and the gap to the pacesetters has shrunk since the start of the season. However, there is still a long way to go if Verstappen is going to repeat the second-half charge to the front he made in 2025.<\/p>\n

\u201cDon’t count on me to say that we are satisfied, because we are not,\u201d said Mekies. \u201cBecause we will not be satisfied until we go back to having a race car that has the pace to win on merit.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A victory for Lando Norris and McLaren in the Hungarian Grand Prix means that only one of the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":832185,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[441],"tags":[49,48,183855,782,290601,784,578,576,577,237154,1642,290600,273948,82],"class_list":["post-832184","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-collection-motorsport","tag-content-type-news","tag-contentid-eb7aaabc-7b02-4689-ac30-163097e64789","tag-displaytype-standard-article","tag-f1","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-issyndicated-false","tag-locale-us","tag-shorttitle-red-bull-f1-sees-a-brighter-second-half-ahead","tag-sponsored-false","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/832184","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=832184"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/832184\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/832185"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=832184"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=832184"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=832184"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}