​Although Red Bull topped the early internal combustion engine rankings, a result partly shaped by how each manufacturer has chosen to run its power unit in the opening Formula 1 races of 2026, the newcomer still appears to lag on the electrical side. According to Max Verstappen, that weakness becomes especially evident at energy-starved circuits where energy management is even more crucial than usual.
Red Bull struggled in Japan, where the team was already contending with chassis and weight issues, and the same pattern reappeared at Silverstone. Before his crash, Verstappen seemed on track for a podium, but after the incident he was blunt about how he viewed that possibility. “Even if we had finished third, it wouldn’t have been deserved at all,” the four-time world champion said. His difficulties behind the wheel were partly due to balance and power unit problems that left him keen to start from the pit lane, but he also attributed them to the track layout not playing to Red Bull’s strengths.
Verstappen contends that a Silverstone podium would have felt unjustified given the team’s troubles. There are two key factors at play. First, although Barcelona suggested competitiveness, Red Bull’s high-speed corner performance remains a weaker area, and Silverstone is dominated by such sections. Second, Red Bull has not shown the strongest efficiency in energy management and running its power unit, a potential issue that could reappear at Spa.
Oliver Bearman and Fernando Alonso have already warned that the Belgian circuit demands even more extreme energy management than Silverstone. Verstappen knows that Spa will likely present a very different challenge this year and that Red Bull could face another tough weekend. “Spa and Monza are going to be great, yeah,” Verstappen said with a wry tone. “And that’s a real shame because Spa is obviously one of my favourite tracks. But this year it’s going to feel very different.” Team principal Laurent Mekies shares Verstappen’s view that Spa-Francorchamps could again test the team’s limits. “A week ago [in Austria], we were fighting for the win,” he said. “A few days later, here in Silverstone, we were hitting some pretty strong limitations that prevented us from extracting everything out of our package. We think it is compounded by a track like Silverstone. When energy is scarce, we seem to struggle more. On tracks where the energy limitations are severe, we appear to fare worse than the competition. In that respect, I fear Spa will probably fall into that category as well.”
Red Bull is now scrutinizing the Silverstone data in an effort to optimize its energy management strategy and improve performance for upcoming races. The team is leaning into the need to maximize what the power unit and chassis can deliver under energy constraints, while continuing to study how different circuits affect its overall efficiency. Spa looms large as a test case, with Verstappen and his engineers preparing for a circuit that could reveal whether their energy-management approach can bridge the gap to the coming races.