TEAM PREVIEW: Red Bull – All you need to know about the team ahead of the 2026 F1 season

In a word, Red Bull's 2025 season was eventful. Struggles with their car saw reigning World Champion Max Verstappen seemingly out of contention by the summer break, while Liam Lawson only lasted two rounds as the Dutchman's team mate before being demoted to Racing Bulls in a swap with Yuki Tsunoda. What's more, in July, long-serving team boss Christian Horner departed with Laurent Mekies coming in to replace him. Then, everything changed as the team and Verstappen went on an incredible run to roar back into title contention – only just missing out. With another new driver alongside the four-time World Champion, how are Red Bull shaping up for 2026? Here's the lowdown...

Drivers for 2026

Max Verstappen #3: 4 World Championships, 71 Grand Prix wins, 127 podiums, 48 pole positions, 3444.5 points, 233 starts
Isack Hadjar #6: 1 podium, 51 points, 23 starts

After four consecutive title successes, Max Verstappen was dethroned as World Champion by McLaren’s Lando Norris in 2025. While the crown may have gone – and the #1 on his car along with it – the Dutchman is still arguably the most complete operator on the F1 grid right now.

Following Red Bull’s struggles to get the most out of their car in the early stages of last year, Verstappen roared back in the second half of the season and almost completed the greatest title comeback ever seen. In the end he was just two points shy of Norris having been 104 points off the title lead following the Dutch Grand Prix.

The 28-year-old notched up eight Grand Prix victories in 2025 – one more than Norris and fellow title rival Oscar Piastri – and demonstrated his excellence on track countless times for all to see. His fightback to the podium from a pit lane start in Brazil, despite dry weather and a puncture, was another example of what he can do.

Alongside him, there’s another change on the other side of the Red Bull garage. Having had Liam Lawson and Yuki Tsunoda as team mates last season, it’s now the turn of Frenchman Isack Hadjar to step up alongside Verstappen and try to make this difficult second seat work.

Tsunoda and Lawson – as well as Sergio Perez, Alex Albon and Pierre Gasly before them – have tried and failed to live up to the pressure of being Verstappen’s team mate. After an exemplary rookie campaign with Racing Bulls last year, does Hadjar have what it takes to deliver?

How did Red Bull do in 2025?

Of all the teams on the 2025 grid, Red Bull embarked on arguably the biggest turnaround in the second half of the season. As mentioned above, the team’s car was a difficult beast to tame with a narrow operating window, and Verstappen was seemingly out of title contention by the time F1 arrived at its mid-season break in August.

The car’s difficulty was particularly troublesome for Lawson, who was demoted to Racing Bulls after just two rounds in a swap with Tsunoda, but the Japanese driver also struggled to get the most out of the package throughout the season.

In July there was a major reshuffle of personnel as long-serving Team Principal Christian Horner – who had led the squad since their F1 arrival in 2005 – departed his role. In his place came Laurent Mekies, the Frenchman stepping up having been boss at the sister outfit Racing Bulls.

And then, from the Italian Grand Prix onwards, Red Bull were seemingly back. An all-new update to the floor helped but Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko – who has now also left his role after 20 years – explained that the uptick in form had more to do with how the team was being guided by Verstappen’s preferences.

It worked. Verstappen reeled off victories in Monza, Azerbaijan, Austin, Las Vegas, Qatar and Abu Dhabi – having won just two Grands Prix before that run – as he roared back into the title fight, despite ultimately falling just short.

History

Back in 2005, the drinks company Red Bull took over the outfit that had formerly been Jaguar – and it has been quite the journey since then.

After scoring the occasional podium in their first few seasons, Red Bull had to wait until 2009 for their debut victory courtesy of a certain Sebastian Vettel. The German, and future four-time World Champion, had actually scored victory for the junior squad Toro Rosso a year earlier at Monza.

However, Red Bull’s partnership with Vettel would soon flourish as they took four consecutive Drivers’ and Teams’ Championships together between 2010 and 2013.

With the Mercedes team taking over as the dominant force in F1 from 2014, as the turbo-hybrid era began, Red Bull returned to championship-winning ways with Verstappen and four further Drivers’ Championships from 2021 to 2024, as well as two additional Teams’ crowns – they now hold a total of six Constructors’ titles and eight Drivers’ Championships.

They also rank fourth in F1’s history for the number of wins with 130, one behind Mercedes, while Ferrari and McLaren occupy the first and second spots respectively.

Greatest achievement

In short, there’s a lot – and it’s a debate you could have over and over about what marks out Red Bull’s greatest success. However, statistically speaking at least, it’s hard to look past the 2023 season as the squad won 21 out of 22 races.

Verstappen was responsible for 19 of those victories, surpassing his own record for the most wins in a season after previously achieving 15 in 2022, as he went on to seal an utterly dominant title success.

This period also saw Red Bull become the team to take the most consecutive victories, a run that started at the 2022 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix and lasted for an impressive 15 races.

One key goal for 2026

Ultimately Red Bull will want to start 2026 in the manner they ended 2025 – by winning. But there’s a bigger picture at play here.

As the sport enters a new era in 2026 – with new regulations coming in that promise to rip up the form book – Red Bull also embark on the project of building their own power units in partnership with Ford. That marks a switch from Honda, as the Japanese manufacturer will now solely provide engines to Aston Martin.

“It’s as crazy as it gets to take the decision to do your own power unit, as Red Bull has done,” said Mekies back in September, acknowledging the challenge ahead compared to other constructors – such as Mercedes and Ferrari – who have been producing their own power units for many years.

“These guys have been doing it for 90 years or something like that, so it would be silly from our side to think we're going to come here and, right from the start, be at Ferrari’s or Mercedes’ level. That would be silly.”

If we’re looking for one key goal then, nailing their power unit project with Ford is a crucial first step for Red Bull in delivering a successful car. Should they succeed in producing a competitive package, it would also further convince Max Verstappen that Red Bull is the place to be, amid plenty of reports last year that Mercedes were interested in his services. After all, who wouldn’t want a driver like Verstappen as part of their driver line-up?