{"id":41453,"date":"2026-06-16T13:23:29","date_gmt":"2026-06-16T13:23:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/41453\/"},"modified":"2026-06-16T13:23:29","modified_gmt":"2026-06-16T13:23:29","slug":"max-verstappen-issues-nowhere-red-bull-assessment-after-quiet-f1-barcelona-gp","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/41453\/","title":{"rendered":"Max Verstappen issues ‘nowhere’ Red Bull assessment after quiet F1 Barcelona GP"},"content":{"rendered":"

Four-time Formula 1 <\/a>World Champion Max Verstappen<\/a> admits that Red Bull is still \u201cnowhere where they want to be\u201d despite a P4 finish in Barcelona. <\/p>\n

The 2026 season has been a fairly quiet one for Verstappen and Red Bull, as the duo has struggled to sustain a challenge on their rivals at the front of the field. This was no different in Barcelona, when the Dutchman finished the race in fourth. Despite the high position, Verstappen was unable to challenge the Mercedes, Ferrari and McLaren drivers ahead of him. However, his pace was strong enough to build a gap to the rest of the field. <\/p>\n

Seemingly, the story of the team\u2019s season thus far. When reflecting on the race, the 28-year-old highlighted that the team\u2019s current position in the competitive order remains clear. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s clear that we\u2019re still behind Ferrari, Mercedes, and McLaren,\u201d Verstappen mentioned after the race.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause I basically finished behind each one of them. So we\u2019re still, I think, P4 as a team, maybe a little bit better, but it\u2019s still not where, of course, we want to be. It\u2019s a work in progress. I hope very soon that we can pick up a little bit more in performance.\u201d<\/p>\n

The fourth-place finish continues a difficult run for Red Bull. Last year, Verstappen had already claimed two race victories and was continually challenging the McLaren duo. But a Canada podium remains the Red Bull driver\u2019s only top-three finish of the season. <\/p>\n

Despite key front-wing upgrades for Barcelona, changes were modest compared to the larger development packages brought by several rivals. Verstappen believes continued upgrades will be key if the team is to close the gap.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn general it\u2019s just bringing more upgrades and better performance, which is what we are working on,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhoever brings upgrades will make a jump. It just depends on who is always bringing the biggest one.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"VerstappenVerstappen believes Red Bull does not have enough pace to challenge its former rivals<\/p>\n

Laurent Mekies believes Barcelona exposed Red Bull\u2019s weaknesses<\/p>\n

Red Bull team principal Laurent Mekies echoed his driver\u2019s statements, describing last weekend as a crucial \u201creality check.\u201d Following encouraging performances on circuits such as Monaco, the team needed to remember they remained a far way from their rivals.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we were expecting that reality check in Barcelona,\u201d Mekies said.<\/p>\n

\u201cFirst track with a long straight, the mid-speed, high-speed corners. It\u2019s probably the first time after China and Japan where we come back to this sort of track. So we are expecting certainly a different performance compared to Monaco, where we could suddenly fight for pole.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Mekies acknowledged Red Bull has made progress compared to the start of the season, he believes the team still lacks several tenths needed to consistently challenge for victories.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think this weekend confirms, because what we are talking about is three or four tenths from pole, or three or four tenths from what you need to do to fight for the win, and that was certainly a very different picture at the beginning of the year on this sort of track.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is still a gap, no doubt, PU side, chassis side, and that\u2019s what we need to fight for next.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rather than a single area of improvement, the Frenchman believes that the team\u2019s weaknesses are spread out across several areas. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not about one single thing anymore, it\u2019s about finding a little bit of performance in a mid-speed corner, in high speed corner, on the straight line.\u201d<\/p>\n

This much-needed indicator of the RB22\u20192 true pace this season should provide the workings for several crucial upgrade packages across the coming rounds. All of which is aiming to bring Red Bull back to fighting at the front of the field. <\/p>\n

READ MORE: Could Alpine\u2019s Right to Review success spark a major F1 domino effect?<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Four-time Formula 1 World Champion Max Verstappen admits that Red Bull is still \u201cnowhere where they want to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":41454,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[92,18073,4357,17609,19320],"class_list":["post-41453","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-barcelona","tag-barcelona","tag-barcelonagp","tag-f1","tag-max-verstappen","tag-redbull"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41453","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41453"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41453\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/41454"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41453"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41453"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41453"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}