The worrying Max Verstappen F1 car issue Red Bull can’t fix in 2026
A puzzling Red Bull F1 car issue that has annoyed Max Verstappen has no fix before 2027.
Red Bull has admitted an issue with its Formula 1 car that Max Verstappen has repeatedly complained about this season cannot be fixed before 2027.
Verstappen has been vocal in his grumbles relating to Red Bull’s 2026 challenger throughout the campaign and regularly highlighted that it gets worse over the course of a session or weekend.
After a spin in qualifying in Hungary, the four-time world champion claimed his car was “degrading”. Verstappen also described the RB22 as being “a car made of paper” during qualifying at Monza.
Red Bull has acknowledged that Verstappen’s complaints centre around a very real and “complex” problem that the team has been trying to get on top of for some time.
"I don't think we are going to explain what it is and how we are going to fix it. But I think Max is right [in saying] that there is an element of car performance degradation that is happening through a session and through a race,” Red Bull team principal Laurent Mekies said after the Spanish Grand Prix in Madrid.
"He's also right in saying that it's not a new issue. We are not sleeping on it. We have been trying to tackle that in different ways.
“I consider it a complex issue. Otherwise, we would get to the bottom of it. But everyone is very constructive about it and we are trying to make small steps at the time to be able to finally get to the bottom of it.”
Mekies conceded there is no quick fix and Red Bull will likely carry the issue into the 2027 season before it can be cured for good.
"We had a couple of positive steps in that regard this weekend,” Mekies added. “It will never be the full picture, but we certainly have, through pain, made progress into our understanding.
“We don't have all the solutions on the car yet, but I trust that we are in the right way. It will not be fast, so it's something that will probably take us through next year.
"I'm not going to give any more details here. But as I said, it's true that there are some aspects of the car performance that sometimes don't stay at the optimum level. And that’s serious lap time.
“So, it's something we [need to get on top of]. There is no doubt that we have everyone trying to improve that for the future."
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