Racing
© Jonathan Borba
Max Verstappen’s second place behind George Russell at Spielberg gave Red Bull its clearest sign yet that the RB22 is back in contention, with the team calling the Austrian Grand Prix its strongest race of 2026 after a major upgrade finally put it in a genuine fight for victory.
At Red Bull’s home race, Verstappen finished just 1.6 seconds behind Russell after 71 laps and said the difference from the previous round was immediate. The Red Bull Racing driver said he felt, for the first time this season, that he could really fight for the win. After effectively driving alone at the last Grand Prix and having “nobody to attack,” he said the update package delivered for Spielberg allowed him to challenge at the front.
That package was extensive. Ahead of the race weekend at the Red Bull Ring, Red Bull changed “practically everything from the cockpit” rearward on the RB22, with the main focus on redesigned sidepods and a weight reduction that brought the car down to the regulation minimum.
Laurent Mekies, Red Bull Racing, said the scale of the changes made for a difficult weekend for the engineers, but he felt the result justified the effort. “That was without doubt our strongest race of 2026,” he said. “As we discussed after qualifying, the progress was visible, but it was hard to quantify it exactly. That we got so close to the absolute frontrunning pace on such a demanding track and in these high temperatures is very encouraging.”
Verstappen’s race underlined that step. Starting from the third row, he passed Charles Leclerc and Kimi Antonelli by lap two, then ran third and went wheel-to-wheel with Lewis Hamilton on lap 11 before Hamilton pitted. Verstappen said the first half of the race was “clearly more competitive” and that the fights with Hamilton were enjoyable, even if they cost time.
The run to the finish was not straightforward. From the middle of the second stint, Verstappen said rear-axle problems made bumps, curbs and traction “extremely difficult to manage,” and he had to live with it to the flag. Even so, after George Russell looked to be pulling away, Verstappen closed again late in the race.
His bigger frustration was strategy. Russell made his second stop on lap 43, while Verstappen stayed out until lap 49. Verstappen said he had Russell “under control” at that point, while also knowing the final stint would be very long. In his view, the time lost by staying out those extra laps was greater than anything he could recover later on fresher tires.
The result still marked a major change in Red Bull’s trajectory. Mekies said the car is “significantly faster” and that after several difficult races the team is back in the fight. He added that Red Bull has almost erased a deficit of more than a second to the front from the start of the season and is now operating within the final tenths.
That does not mean Verstappen sees a title challenge as straightforward. He remains 98 points behind championship leader Kimi Antonelli and said Red Bull still has to become more complete overall to sustain a real fight. “We still have too many problems, starting with the obvious things and going all the way to internal processes in the background that you probably know nothing about, but I do,” he said.