Red Bull's "Significant Shortcomings": Verstappen's Frustration Boils Over After Two Scoreless Races

Red Bull Racing's start to the 2026 season has been their worst in the Verstappen era. After two rounds, Max Verstappen has eight points — 120th and last among drivers who have scored. The problems are multiple, layered, and not easily fixed.

The Shanghai Disaster

Verstappen's Chinese Grand Prix was a catalogue of failures. He dropped from eighth to 15th on the opening lap of the sprint due to the persistent start procedure problem — "I just have no power. As soon as I release the clutch, the engine is not there," he told Motorsport.com. In the grand prix, despite qualifying eighth, he was down to 11th by lap two before eventually retiring on lap 46 with an ERS failure. He described the weekend as "a disaster" per Formula1.com.

Mekies Admits the Scale of the Problem

Team principal Laurent Mekies used unusually stark language after Shanghai. "Significant shortcomings" was his assessment per Sky Sports F1. The Race reported that the RB22 was "completely undriveable" at points during the weekend, with Verstappen struggling with tyre degradation, balance and graining more than any competitor. Verstappen told Sky Sports F1 that "every lap is survival" in the current car.

The Start Procedure Weakness

Motorsport.com identified the race start problem as a pattern: the Red Bull Ford power unit consistently fails to spool the turbo correctly under the new pre-start procedure. Without the MGU-H, turbo spool timing is critical — and Red Bull's solution is clearly behind Ferrari's. At Suzuka, where the first corner sequence demands immediate confidence, a poor start could be even more costly.

Suzuka: Verstappen's Best Chance?

Verstappen has won the last four Japanese Grands Prix. Suzuka's high-speed, flowing layout rewards car confidence and driver commitment — two areas where Verstappen excels even in a compromised machine. If Red Bull can find even marginal improvements to the RB22's balance, Suzuka's characteristics could suit the car better than Shanghai's stop-start layout. But "could" is doing heavy lifting — the evidence from the first two rounds suggests the deficit to Mercedes is structural, not circuit-specific.