2026 Oracle Red Bull Racing F1 Team

[lio007]

WCC: 2010/2011/2012/2013/2022/2023

Team: Oracle Red Bull Racing
Base: Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, United Kingdom

Team principal: Laurent Mekies
Technical director: Pierre Waché

Race drivers:
3 Max Verstappen.
6 Isack Hadjar.

Chassis: RB22
Engine: Red Bull Ford



A new era starts for the team in so many ways.
The core of the team more or less gone, a self-developed power unit, new regulations, new driver lineup and a new wind tunnel going live in '26.

[ME4ME]

Lets see if GP will remain at the team in 2026:

Verstappen's race engineer Lambiase in talks to join Aston Martin

-TheRace

[Paa]

Lets see if GP will remain at the team in 2026:

Verstappen's race engineer Lambiase in talks to join Aston Martin

-TheRace

Btw, this is also something I would do if eventually I wanted to lure Max. Having GP on board could be a strong factor either way.

[Badger]

Max will only leave for a sure thing and AMR is far from that atm. They're recruiting a bunch of people as they have been doing for years, but they've not shown anything on track. I don't have high hopes for 2026 either.

From GPs perspective it could make sense if they are offering him a big contract for the TP role, you don't get too many offers like that, but it's not risk free. We've seen Stroll Sr be impatient with senior management in the past and that pretty much puts an end to your TP career if things don't work out. I think GP has a bright future at the top of the sport and I don't necessarily think he needs to jump at the first offer when it comes with baggage like that. Obviously if it's a huge contract it's hard to say no regardless of the risks. If I were him I'd try to leverage it into a better deal at RB before I made that decision, which may be why this has leaked

[ME4ME]

Max will only leave for a sure thing and AMR is far from that atm. They're recruiting a bunch of people as they have been doing for years, but they've not shown anything on track. I don't have high hopes for 2026 either.

From GPs perspective it could make sense if they are offering him a big contract for the TP role, you don't get too many offers like that, but it's not risk free. We've seen Stroll Sr be impatient with senior management in the past and that pretty much puts an end to your TP career if things don't work out. I think GP has a bright future at the top of the sport and I don't necessarily think he needs to jump at the first offer when it comes with baggage like that. Obviously if it's a huge contract it's hard to say no regardless of the risks. If I were him I'd try to leverage it into a better deal at RB before I made that decision, which may be why this has leaked

You are right about Stroll Snr but if GP has Adrian Neweys vote of confidence and does a good job in whatever role Aston Martin put him in, he'll be safe.

If this is a TP level offer GP should take it, just like Vowles did.
But obviously GPs heart is at Red Bull Racing, so he'll have some thinking to do. For Red Bull its obviously very crucial that he stays.

[Badger]

Max will only leave for a sure thing and AMR is far from that atm. They're recruiting a bunch of people as they have been doing for years, but they've not shown anything on track. I don't have high hopes for 2026 either.

From GPs perspective it could make sense if they are offering him a big contract for the TP role, you don't get too many offers like that, but it's not risk free. We've seen Stroll Sr be impatient with senior management in the past and that pretty much puts an end to your TP career if things don't work out. I think GP has a bright future at the top of the sport and I don't necessarily think he needs to jump at the first offer when it comes with baggage like that. Obviously if it's a huge contract it's hard to say no regardless of the risks. If I were him I'd try to leverage it into a better deal at RB before I made that decision, which may be why this has leaked

You are right about Stroll Snr but if GP has Adrian Neweys vote of confidence and does a good job in whatever role Aston Martin put him in, he'll be safe.

If this is a TP level offer GP should take it, just like Vowles did.
But obviously GPs heart is at Red Bull Racing, so he'll have some thinking to do. For Red Bull its obviously very crucial that he stays.

Depends what the pay is. TP at AMR is a high risk job, that demands a premium. I have to think that GP is pretty close to being an exempt employee at RB, only Mekies and Waché are obviously ahead of him.

[f1isgood]

The 2026 Oracle Red Bull Racing so far has more discussion about the 2026 Aston Martin Aramco F1 Team.

If GP moves so be it, if Max moves so be it. He will be the greatest driver that I have seen but every other team is more incompetent than this Red Bull Racing that's a shadow of what it used to be just a year ago when it comes to everything else apart from making a car which McLaren did exceptionally well the last couple of years. Even then the team showed their strength.

On to 2026, Hope the engines will be a banger and it will be a Red Bull versus Mercedes driver for the title.

[AR3-GP]

It should be a top 3 team next year.

[pantherxxx]

Here, Ford Racing boss Mark Rushbrook says that although they don’t know what the competition is doing, they are getting very close to the power figures that are theoretically possible under the 2026 regulations. IMO that's certainly reassuring, and this confirms Pierre Wache’s statement that the power unit is “very, very promising.”

[AR3-GP]

and a new wind tunnel going live in '26.

Just to put a number on it, from january:

"We are three months ahead of the plans.

"The guys are doing a very good job, but you never know if you get any delays somewhere else. It is a big project."

The new wind tunnel should be operational in 2026, meaning it can be beneficial to Red Bull for its 2027 challenger.

"Or maybe already help us later in the year [2026]," added Wache.

https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/red- ... /10686031/

It sounds like the new windtunnel could be fully operational in the 2nd quarter of 2026 at earliest (APR-MAY) with potential to influence upgrades in 2nd half of 2026, as well as the 2027 car.

[euv2]

I have strong belief that the aero team will put out a concept that will be at the top of the field, they have a level of detail to the design of minute aero elements that I still don't see in the rest of the teams on the grid. I think with Red Bulls prior experience with flat floor/rake (if it's going to be a thing- probably a low rake if any) will help them out.

So, it will mostly come down to the PU, and if RBPT can be within a touching distance of the best (likely to be Merc with 2 strong teams using it).

From everything that's been said so far, the team expects to be competitive, probably start out as 2nd or close 3rd best, with the goal to be fighting for wins in the 2nd half, I think this is more about RBR's mentality, positioning themselves as the non favorites and challenging themselves to do more. Similar to the noise we heard before 22, if they somehow end up being the best then great news.

Expecting a heavy emphasis on in season updates, they will probably try to bring something new every other race, also I don't expect the old wind tunnel to be a hinderance for the new car (main disadvantage was the long start up time in winter), obviously the new WT will come with some benefits, like improved correlation between CFD and track data/increased efficiency/improved simulation of different race conditions. So, if it be interesting to see if the hit rate of updates goes up, although early in the regs finding performance with new parts will be much easier but there's always a few fumbles along the way.

[euv2]

I wonder if Red bull are finally going to switch over to air to liquid intercoolers for the RB22, is the decision going to be dictated by RBPT or does the chassis side have the final say?

I'm assuming there'd be a case for air to air intercoolers to stay given the tighter packaging.

[ME4ME]

I wonder if Red bull are finally going to switch over to air to liquid intercoolers for the RB22, is the decision going to be dictated by RBPT or does the chassis side have the final say?

I'm assuming there'd be a case for air to air intercoolers to stay given the tighter packaging.

As they always say, time is the only thing that matters. So all the departments will have to agree on a compromise.

My guess is air to air intercooler will stay for weight reasons.

[venkyhere]

I wonder if Red bull are finally going to switch over to air to liquid intercoolers for the RB22, is the decision going to be dictated by RBPT or does the chassis side have the final say?

I'm assuming there'd be a case for air to air intercoolers to stay given the tighter packaging.

As they always say, time is the only thing that matters. So all the departments will have to agree on a compromise.

My guess is air to air intercooler will stay for weight reasons.

We can'r really call the 'why' before we see the 'what', because there could be other reasons like lesser boost (only 500bhp peak unlike 800bhp before) resulting in lower charge air temps, whether a large or small sidepod is what's needed (which in turn is going to be defined by what methodology choice each team makes about how the coke bottle area is going to be kept 'protected' from front tyre wake) etc etc etc..there isn't one reason for such choices, its like 5-6 independent constraints together going to war with each other and the designers eventually arriving at the least hurtful compromise and then deciding the size/shapes of some 20 aspects of the car.

My take :
Apart from the engine differences of course, 'how different will each car look w.r.t others, before they all converge to a similar looking design 2-3 yrs later' ?
My bet is on engine air intake and sidepods looking tremendously different from anything seen in the last two decades and each team will have their own interpretation, because they are going to be dictated by :
- just 500bhp peak power from ICE
- inwashing front floor bargeboard force-defined in the regulations ; teams are going to go hell for leather with 'innovations' towards the back half of the floor/sidepod, to 'reflect' this inwash back to outwash, so that coke bottle area is protected.

Discuss, please, it will be fun to make such 'predictions' before the cars are unveiled in Jan'26 and then we can find out how wrong we've been.

[PlatinumZealot]

I wonder if Red bull are finally going to switch over to air to liquid intercoolers for the RB22, is the decision going to be dictated by RBPT or does the chassis side have the final say?

I'm assuming there'd be a case for air to air intercoolers to stay given the tighter packaging.

Put it this way.. All the engines that won championships during the ground effect ear used air to air intercoolers. RedBull and McLaren. Engines that won championships in first part the turbo hybrid era were water intercooled and one of them air to air. In other words there is not much to gain to switch to a water cooled intercooler.