Red Bull has significantly closed the gap to the front-runners in the first half of the season—but according to Laurent Mekies, the budget cap is now forcing the team to rethink its strategy
Red Bull has significantly closed the gap to the front-runners in the first half of the season. But this enormous surge in development comes at a price. Team principal Laurent Mekies admits that the team will struggle to maintain its current pace of development after the summer break due to the budget cap.
Although Red Bull finished the first half of the season in only fourth place in the Constructors’ Championship, data from partner Paceteq shows clear progress. While the team was still trailing the leaders by up to 1.3 seconds per lap in terms of race pace in Australia and China—performing at the level of Haas and Alpine—the gap in the last two race weekends before the summer break was down to just two to three tenths of a second.
Red Bull has thus reduced the gap to the front-runners by about one second. This was made possible by extensive development work, which, however, comes at a cost both on the track and financially.
Extensive Upgrades in Miami and Austria
With two major update packages in Miami and Austria, Red Bull comprehensively overhauled its car. Among other things, the RB22 received a significantly revised aerodynamic concept with redesigned sidepods. The team also managed to eliminate the car’s weight imbalance.
While Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff recently questioned how Ferrari could seemingly introduce “unlimited” new parts, the Scuderia pointed out that Red Bull had actually introduced even more new components during the first eleven race weekends.
Mekies now confirms that this pace of development can hardly be sustained in the second half of the season. A key reason is the budget cap, which will be set at $215 million in 2026: “Between the first race and today, we’ve introduced an enormous amount of developments to the car in order to make up the significant deficit we had at the start as quickly as possible,” says the Frenchman.
The last few tenths are the hardest
Mekies had already explained in the past that the last two to three tenths of a second are particularly difficult to gain because the competition is also continuously improving. “It’s probably hard to imagine that we can maintain this pace. Nevertheless, we have to figure out how we can still find those last three tenths,” said Mekies.
McLaren Team Principal Andrea Stella recently predicted that any team hoping to compete for wins in the second half of the season would need to find another half-second or so by the end of the season.
Earlier Focus on the 2027 Car
In addition to the budget cap, the teams must also decide how to allocate their resources between the current car and the project for the upcoming season. This includes, among other things, wind tunnel time and development capacity.
According to Mekies, Red Bull intends to take a different approach this time than it did last year. Back then, the team focused for a long time on closing the gap to McLaren and supporting Max Verstappen in the title fight. Technical Director Pierre Waché later explained that Red Bull paid a price for this at the start of the 2026 season.
That’s why the focus is to shift earlier this time to the car for next season: “I don’t know how the other teams are handling it, but at some point we have to make a decision about the balance between this year and next,” explains Mekies.
“I expect we’ll make this decision earlier than we did last year, especially given the current regulations.” The Red Bull team principal left open exactly when this change in strategy will take place. What is clear, however, is that the team wants to manage the balancing act between catching up in the current season and preparing for 2027 as efficiently as possible.
