Further development: What Red Bull Racing will do differently this year

With this year’s new rules, the Formula 1 circus has opened a new chapter in the history of the sport. The extensive changes to the specifications for the cars and power units have given rise to a new generation of cars and engines, which presents both drivers and engineers with major challenges.

And because the implementation of major rule changes also increases the potential for further development, the teams are working flat out. Red Bull Racing is no exception, as team principal Laurent Mekies emphasises: “Between the first and the most recent race, we’ve introduced a huge number of innovations onto the track, because we wanted to eliminate the significant deficit we had at the start as quickly as possible.”

Can Red Bull Racing maintain this pace given the limited resources imposed by the budget cap? The Frenchman says: “It’s probably hard to imagine that we can keep up this pace. But we have to see how we can find a way to make up the final tenths that we’re missing.”

At some point, however, the focus will have to shift to development for 2027, emphasises the engineer, whose team continued to develop the car right up until the end last year as Max Verstappen’s chances of winning the world title grew ever greater. “I can only speak for us, and at some point we’ll have to make that decision,” says Mekies. “I expect this to happen much earlier this year than it did last season, as the rules are now finalised.”