Racing
© Morio
Red Bull’s heavily revised RB22 turned the Austrian Grand Prix into its clearest sign yet of a return to the front, with Max Verstappen charging from fifth on the grid to second and Laurent Mekies saying the team is now “within the last tenth” of race-winning pace.
That matters because Red Bull had started the season, in Mekies’ words, “north of one second” away from the level needed to win. He said the package introduced in Miami cut that deficit into “the half a second region,” and that Austria has moved the team to “within the last tenth” and “certainly within striking range.”
Verstappen’s race gave the update immediate credibility. He passed Kimi Antonelli and Charles Leclerc in one move on lap two and finished less than two seconds behind the winner, delivering Red Bull’s closest gap to victory this season. It was also a sharp change in form for a team that had not stood on the podium since Verstappen’s third place in Canada.
Mekies, Red Bull team principal, called Austria “probably undoubtedly the strongest race we have done this season.” He added: “To see us getting so close to the ultimate pace needed to win here on a difficult track in very hot weather is a good witness of how much work went on in Milton Keynes and how strong Max today was really in all phases of the race.”
The scale of the package helps explain why Austria has drawn so much attention. Technical reports described broad revisions to the sidepod inlets, floor leading edge and outer bodywork, gearbox fairing, rear suspension area and engine cover, along with an FTM profile behind the exhaust. Sources cited in those reports also indicated Red Bull had finally brought the RB22 down to the FIA minimum weight after carrying an overweight problem earlier in the season.
That has opened the biggest question around Red Bull’s step forward: how much came from the visible aerodynamic changes, and how much from the weight reduction. Former Red Bull mechanic Calum Nicholas, speaking on the team’s official Talking Bull podcast, said the seven FIA-listed update items “almost feel like a B-spec car,” but suggested some of the performance may have come from a less visible “diet programme” under the bodywork rather than only the declared aero parts.
Nicholas said: “You look at the FIA document, it's mostly flow conditioning. It's all been about extracting the most downforce and making the car more efficient. Everything from the sidepod inlet to the engine cover, the floor, the top section of the floor, the underside, rear corners, rear suspension fairings, it's a lot. And it does almost feel like a B-spec car.”
He then added: “I wonder though if the vast majority of the pace that we've seen today has actually come from the diet programme that it's been under. We talked about the weight loss, and I know we started the year severely overweight. I wonder how much of that has actually come from the fact that we've brought some upgrades that are under the bodywork, things that you can't necessarily see, or don't have to declare on an FIA document.”
Whether the gain came mostly from aero, weight, or the combination of both, Austria changed Red Bull’s position. After spending the opening phase of the season well adrift, it left the Red Bull Ring looking like a genuine threat to the frontrunners again.