Mekies admits that the car loses performance lap after lap, a problem Verstappen has been pointing out for years. The team is working to fix it but acknowledges that its complexity prevents a quick solution and that it will persist next season.
Red Bull has stopped denying the evidence. Laurent Mekies, team principal of the Austrian team, has confirmed that the RB22's performance degradation problem that Max Verstappen has been denouncing for months is real and that, furthermore, it does not have a simple solution: "I think Max is right when he says there is a problem of degradation of the car's performance that manifests itself during a session and during a race" declared Mekies, settling any doubt about the veracity of the Dutchman's complaints.
The phenomenon is peculiar and worrying, it is not a one off failure or a defective component but a progressive loss of performance that becomes more pronounced with each lap. Verstappen described it precisely after the summer break, the car becomes increasingly difficult to drive as if it were "degrading" as the race progresses. In Hungary the Dutchman again lost control of his car and in Monza he complained insistently about rear axle problems, both in free practice and in the race.
Mekies confirmed that the team has detected aerodynamic losses that are not related to the operation of the movable rear wing and that the origin of the problem is deeper than it seemed: "He is right to say that it is not a new problem, we have not stood idly by on this matter, we have tried to address it in different ways. Obviously I consider it a complex problem because otherwise we would have already solved it" explained the French director.
The complexity of the matter lies in the fact that it affects the quality and consistency of the components. Some teams have detected this year performance differences between parts of identical specification, a phenomenon that also affects Red Bull. When a component does not perform at the expected level, the team loses lap time or is forced to replace it, which directly impacts the budget: "It is an aspect of the car's performance that sometimes does not maintain its optimal level, we are talking about a significant impact on lap time" admitted Mekies.
Despite the seriousness of the problem, the team has achieved notable results. Verstappen has six podiums and is the driver with the most top 3s behind the two Mercedes, a fact that confirms the Dutchman is completing another exceptional season despite having a car that for much of the year has been the fourth force on the grid. In Madrid, Lewis Hamilton's retirement and the appearance of the Virtual Safety Car at the right moment allowed him to conquer a second place that after the first corners seemed unreachable.
However, Mekies was realistic about the immediate future: "We have taken a couple of positive steps in that sense during the weekend, we will never suddenly have the complete picture but we have certainly made progress in our understanding. We still do not have all the solutions applied to the car but I trust we are moving in the right direction. It will not be something quick so it will probably be a problem that will also stay with us next year" he stated.
Mekies's confession is an implicit acknowledgment that Red Bull faces a structural challenge that transcends the current season.
The Austrian team is working against the clock to understand and mitigate a problem that, according to its own director, could continue to hamper the RB22's performance in 2027.
