{"id":363773,"date":"2025-08-22T04:51:13","date_gmt":"2025-08-22T04:51:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/363773\/"},"modified":"2025-08-22T04:51:13","modified_gmt":"2025-08-22T04:51:13","slug":"red-bull-warned-of-catastrophic-2026-unless-they-can-identify-key-problem","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/363773\/","title":{"rendered":"Red Bull warned of \u2018catastrophic\u2019 2026 unless they can identify key problem"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Red Bull have been warned ahead of a potentially \u201ccatastrophic\u201d 2026 season, unless they can figure out one key thing.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Red Bull\u2019s<\/a> successes in the last four seasons seem like a million miles away. In 2023 they won all but one race. Now, Team Principal Christian Horner<\/a> has been fired, genius engineer Adrian Newey is gone, and they are 365 points behind McLaren<\/a> in the Constructors\u2019 standings.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Luckily for the Milton Keynes-based team, 2026 sees a regulation change in F1.<\/a> The slate is wiped clean, and the grid may be reshaped with a brand new set of cars. But Red Bull have been warned that 2026 could be catastrophic unless they can identify a key issue.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"MaxPhoto by Luca Barsali\/NurPhoto via Getty ImagesRed Bull in \u2018precarious\u2019 situation ahead of 2026 regulation changes<\/p>\n

Following Horner\u2019s sacking<\/a>, Red Bull enter a new era in 2026 with a new Team Principal for the first time in their history. They are also transitioning to their new engines, Red Bull Powertrains, which will be key in these engine regs.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Red Bull\u2019s fall from grace<\/a> this season is a worrying sign for the new regulations. It\u2019s their first season without Newey, and despite the best driver on the F1 grid<\/a>, Max Verstappen<\/a>, driving the wheels off the car, they are nowhere close to contending for wins as of late.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Combine that with Red Bull\u2019s second driver issues<\/a>, and it\u2019s clear to see how they\u2019ve fallen to fourth in the standings after Verstappen won the Driver\u2019s title last season.\u00a0<\/p>\n\nPosition<\/td>\nConstructors’ Standings<\/td>\nPointsPts<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n1<\/td>\n <\/td>\n559<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n2<\/td>\n <\/td>\n260<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n3<\/td>\n <\/td>\n236<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n4<\/td>\n Red Bull Racing <\/td>\n194<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

Former F1 driver Christian Danner warned Red Bull that if they don\u2019t identify what is fundamentally wrong with the car now, they could be in for a disaster come the new regulations.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Speaking to Ran<\/a>, he said, \u201cIf you know your car is too slow, then you work on it purposefully. But if you don\u2019t know why you\u2019re good today and catastrophic tomorrow, then something fundamental is wrong.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is exactly what makes the situation so precarious. Because if this mistake is structural, it can be repeated in the new car in 2026.\u201d<\/p>\n

When asked how quickly Red Bull can recover, Danner offered some optimism, \u201cIt\u2019s hard to say. The team says that they have initial ideas about the cause of the problem. If this is true, they could soon be competitive again.\u201d<\/p>\n

Christian Danner identifies \u2018main issue\u2019 with Red Bull\u2019s second seat <\/p>\n

Red Bull have struggled to get performance out of Verstappen\u2019s teammate for a number of years. Experienced driver Sergio Perez was ousted by Liam Lawson, who lasted two races<\/a> this season before he was replaced by Yuki Tsunoda.\u00a0<\/p>\n

There were positive signs for Tsunoda<\/a> at Spa under new Team Principal Laurent Mekies<\/a>. He gave Tsunoda an updated car, which was more in line with what Verstappen has been driving. He qualified seventh for the Grand Prix, but a bad strategy in the wet meant he finished 13th.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He followed that up with a 17th-place finish in Hungary. It seems nothing has changed. Danner said that\u2019s because the issue lies with the car, not the driver.<\/p>\n

Danner said, \u201cThe main problem is not with the driver, but with the car. As long as the car does not work, the second driver will not be able to establish himself in the two-tenths behind Verstappen, which would have to be the minimum.\u201d<\/p>\n

A few names have been floated to take the Red Bull second seat next season, including Racing Bulls ace Isack Hadjar, who is enjoying a prolific rookie season. <\/p>\n

However, according to Danner, all of Red Bull\u2019s energy should be directed towards the car. Then they can worry about who will be driving it. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Red Bull have been warned ahead of a potentially \u201ccatastrophic\u201d 2026 season, unless they can figure out one…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":363774,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4103],"tags":[4199,707,4200,1073,226,79,16,15,860],"class_list":{"0":"post-363773","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-f1","8":"tag-f1","9":"tag-formula-1","10":"tag-formula1","11":"tag-max-verstappen","12":"tag-red-bull","13":"tag-sports","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom","16":"tag-yuki-tsunoda"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115070624420259056","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/363773","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=363773"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/363773\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/363774"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=363773"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=363773"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=363773"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}