{"id":42237,"date":"2026-06-17T21:19:14","date_gmt":"2026-06-17T21:19:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/42237\/"},"modified":"2026-06-17T21:19:14","modified_gmt":"2026-06-17T21:19:14","slug":"max-verstappen-casts-work-in-progress-verdict-for-red-bull-after-f1-barcelona-gp","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/42237\/","title":{"rendered":"Max Verstappen casts ‘work in progress’ verdict for Red Bull after F1 Barcelona GP"},"content":{"rendered":"

Max Verstappen<\/a> believes Red Bull to have the fourth-fastest car after Formula 1<\/a> Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix result prompts him to call the RB22 a \u201cwork in progress\u201d.<\/p>\n

Verstappen took the chequered flag at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya in fourth, last Sunday. <\/p>\n

Sandwiching the McLaren drivers, the Dutchman ran a pretty lonely race, never really bothering Lando Norris in third, and miles clear of Oscar Piastri back in fifth.<\/p>\n

Looking back on the race, Verstappen conceded that the result was the maximum he could have achieved with the car he had. <\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, we were just a little bit off,\u201d he told media including Motorsport Week. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe strategy, that was good. I had the right tyres, actually, because for me, the hard tyres didn\u2019t feel good.\u201d<\/p>\n

Once a staple of F1 pre-season testing, Barcelona is considered to be a true indicator of a car\u2019s strengths and weaknesses given its range of slow, medium and fast corners. <\/p>\n

When asked if the RB22 was essentially exposed at the track, Verstappen concurred, adding that as things stand the Milton-Keynes-based team were probably only the fourth-fastest package. <\/p>\n

\u201cI think for sure that in high speed, that was [evident] even in qualifying,\u201d he added. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just high-energy tracks, high-deg tracks, that\u2019s just where we seem to lack still.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think in general, we\u2019re just the fourth fastest team. It won\u2019t change the outcome of any of the tracks unless we bring performance. Because we are not going to change it by just changing the setup.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"MaxMax Verstappen has struggled for pace<\/p>\n

RB22 still a \u201cwork in progress\u201d \u2013 Max Verstappen after F1 Barcelona GP<\/p>\n

Seven rounds into the 2026 campaign, Verstappen only has a solitary podium to his name.<\/p>\n

Notwithstanding his P3 at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, the four-time F1 World Champion has generally struggled for both, one-lap and race pace in the RB22. <\/p>\n

On the other hand, rivals like Ferrari have made crucial strides with their packages \u2013 with the Maranello-based squad\u2019s upgraded SF-26 securing Lewis Hamilton his maiden Ferrari win at Barcelona<\/a>. <\/p>\n

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

\u201cIt\u2019s clear that I think we are still behind the Ferrari, Mercedes and McLaren, because we finished behind each one of them.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo we\u2019re still P4 as a team. Maybe a little bit better, but still not where we want to be. But it\u2019s a work in progress.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 28-year-old will be hoping for a better turnout for himself in two weeks\u2019 time as F1 moves onto the Red Bull Ring<\/a> for the Austrian GP.<\/p>\n

READ MORE \u2013 Red Bull issued key F1 demand by Isack Hadjar amid \u2018I\u2019m no machine\u2019 remark <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Max Verstappen believes Red Bull to have the fourth-fastest car after Formula 1 Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix result prompts…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":42238,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[92,18073,4357,17609,19320],"class_list":["post-42237","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\/42237","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=42237"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42237\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/42238"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42237"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42237"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42237"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}