Blue Mist: Is Red Bull-Ford ready for a major Formula 1 step forward?

“Our partnership with Ford is already showing great strength in hybrid integration,” Red Bull Ford team boss Laurent Mekies admits. “We’re not yet at the peak of our potential, and Shanghai’s straights really tested our energy deployment, but the Ford unit’s drivability is a huge asset. Our technical marriage and Ford’s battery expertise also allow us to react and move forward quickly.”

“Drivability and integration of the Red Bull-Ford power unit are exactly where we need them to be at this stage,” Racing Bulls team boss Alan Permane adds. “It’s been a monumental task to transition, and China was a real test of electrical deployment. But to sit equal fifth in the championship is exceptional, and I’m proud of the whole team. Now we look forward to Japan and a circuit with very different challenges to the last races.”

However, while it was expected that Red Bull might struggle with the performance of its new RB21 given the Ford power unit is fresh from a greenfield project, the team remains concerned about shortcomings and reliability issues.

“We are unfortunately not yet the benchmark,” Mekies admits. “But we’ve bounced back often before, and I’m confident we will improve rapidly. Now we focus on a massive push as we prepare for Japan.”

Four-time Formula 1 World Champion Max Verstappen crashed in qualifying after a suspected rogue energy harvesting issue and started at the back of the grid in Australia.

New teammate Isack Hadjar, however, impressed with fourth on the grid, although his race ended in smoke on lap 12. Verstappen fought back to sixth but was unable to pass reigning champion Lando Norris.

Racing Bulls rookie Arvid Lindblad finished an impressive eighth on debut, while teammate Liam Lawson ended 13th. In China, Verstappen qualified eighth, 1.7 seconds off the pace, with Hadjar tenth. Verstappen finished ninth and out of the points, while Hadjar dropped to 15th after contact with Kimi Antonelli on lap one. Lawson scored points with P7 for Racing Bulls, while Lindblad retired.

Verstappen and Hadjar qualified eighth and ninth for the main race, where Verstappen suffered another poor start and fought back to sixth before retiring late with a power unit coolant failure. Hadjar recovered to eighth after a first-lap spin, while Lawson and Lindblad finished 14th and 15th.

The result leaves Verstappen eighth in the Drivers’ Championship, while Lawson sits just behind. Lindblad and Hadjar are equal tenth on four points each. Both teams are tied for fifth in the Constructors’ standings on 12 points, just six behind McLaren in third and one behind Haas.

Despite the struggles, both outfits remain positive about their growing relationship with Ford.

Verstappen, however, is far less optimistic. “It’s been a disaster,” he said. “We’re struggling with graining, we can’t push, the pace is terrible, and the balance is horrible. Honestly, that’s the biggest problem: no grip, no balance, just losing massive time in the corners. Don’t even ask about the starts. It would help to stay in position instead of starting from twentieth, so I hope this is not normal.”

Formula 1’s new power unit regulations require drivers to harvest sufficient energy on the formation lap and run higher revs for at least 10 seconds on the grid to spool up the turbo. It is an area Verstappen has struggled to master so far.

However, both Red Bull and Racing Bulls stand to benefit from a key aspect of the 2026 regulations known as Additional Development and Upgrade Opportunities. This mechanism evaluates power units after the sixth, twelfth and eighteenth races, allowing underperforming manufacturers to make performance gains.

Teams running between 2% and 4% below the leading power unit are granted one additional upgrade, while those more than 4% down receive two. Originally scheduled after Miami, Belgium and Singapore, the first evaluation has now shifted to Monaco following the cancellation of Bahrain and Saudi Arabia.

As ever, Red Bull and Racing Bulls are expected to maximise this opportunity. Combined with the extended development window created by the calendar gap, there is clear potential for both teams to take a significant step forward in the coming races.