Red Bull admits: Budget cap slows down further updates for 2026

– Red Bull has significantly reduced the gap to the top in the first half of the season. However, the enormous development push comes at a price. Team principal Laurent Mekies admits that the team can hardly maintain the current development pace after the summer break due to the budget cap.

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Although Red Bull finished only fourth in the constructors’ standings in the first half of the season, a clear progress is evident according to data from partner Paceteq. While the team lost up to 1.3 seconds per lap in race pace to the top in Australia and China and was on the level of Haas and Alpine, the gap in the last two race weekends before the summer break was only two to three tenths of a second.

This means Red Bull has reduced the gap to the top by about one second. This was made possible by extensive development work, which, however, has its price both in sporting and financial terms.

Extensive upgrades in Miami and Austria

With two major update packages in Miami and Austria, Red Bull comprehensively revised its car. Among other things, the RB22 received a significantly changed aerodynamic concept with newly designed sidepods. The team also managed to eliminate the car’s overweight.

While Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff recently questioned how Ferrari could apparently bring “unlimited” new parts, the Scuderia pointed out that Red Bull had introduced even more new components in the first eleven race weekends.

Mekies now confirms that this development pace can hardly be maintained in the second half of the season. A major reason is the budget cap, which is set at 215 million US dollars in 2026: “We have brought an enormous amount of developments to the car between the first race and today to catch up the big gap we had at the beginning as quickly as possible,” says the Frenchman.

The last tenths are the hardest

Mekies had already explained in the past that the last two to three tenths are particularly difficult to gain because the competition is also continuously developing. “It is probably hard to imagine that we can maintain this pace. Nevertheless, we have to find out how we can still find these last three tenths,” says Mekies.

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McLaren team principal Andrea Stella recently predicted that any team wanting to fight for wins in the second half of the season would have to find about half a second again by the end of the season.

Earlier focus on the 2027 car

Besides the budget cap, teams also have to decide how to allocate their resources between the current car and the project for the upcoming season. This includes, among other things, wind tunnel time and development capacities.

According to Mekies, Red Bull wants to take a different approach this time than last year. Back then, the team focused for a long time on catching up to McLaren and supporting Max Verstappen in the title fight. Technical director Pierre Waché later explained that Red Bull paid a price for this at the start of the 2026 season.

Therefore, the focus should shift earlier this time to the car for the next season: “I don’t know how the other teams handle this, but at some point we have to make a decision about the balance between this year and next year,” explains Mekies.

“I expect that we will make this decision earlier than last year, especially given the current regulations.” When exactly this strategic change will take place, the Red Bull team principal left open. However, it is clear that the team wants to manage the balancing act between the catch-up race in the current season and the preparation for 2027 as efficiently as possible.

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