Red Bull walked out of Melbourne with points, bruises, and a pretty clear idea of where it stands as Formula 1’s new rules era properly begins.
Max Verstappen salvaged sixth after starting 20th, but Laurent Mekies didn’t dress it up as anything more than damage limitation. Ferrari and Mercedes had their measure on outright pace, and the Red Bull boss insisted that wasn’t a shock to anyone inside Milton Keynes — not after what he described as a pre-season of “games” in Bahrain that made the competitive picture harder to read than it looked from the outside.
“We did predict that we would be fourth of teams coming out of the pre-season testing,” Mekies said after the Australian Grand Prix. “As it turned out, I think it’s pretty accurate.”
That’s a sober line from a team that’s rarely been content with “accurate” predictions of fourth. But the framing matters: this isn’t only Red Bull trying to defend a title. It’s Red Bull trying to establish itself as a works power unit outfit in the first race of its RBPT era, while also bedding in a brand-new technical landscape where even teams that arrive well-prepared are admitting how difficult it is to consistently extract the lap time.
The weekend unraveled early. Verstappen’s qualifying ended in Q1 with a trip through the Turn 1 run-off after what Mekies called a “strange incident” — the rear axle appearing to lock under braking. From there the race was always going to be about limiting the bleed, not dictating the tempo.
The irony is that the car didn’t look sixth-fast in clean air. Isack Hadjar’s debut for the senior team was the clearest evidence of that. He stuck the RB22 third on the grid and was running there in the race when a technical issue knocked him out, turning Red Bull’s best shot at an opening podium into another “what if” on a weekend full of them.
Verstappen, meanwhile, did Verstappen things: a controlled, clinical climb through the midfield, enough pace to put the pressure on McLaren’s Lando Norris late on, and not quite enough straight-line bite or overall advantage to complete the job against a rival he knows all too well from the last two title fights.
Mekies’ assessment was blunt. Hadjar’s P3, he felt, was the ceiling of what was available on a “clean qualifying”, but the broader trend was unavoidable.
“In the race, we probably have to say that we were at least on the pace with McLaren, but certainly not able to fight with Ferrari or Mercedes,” he said. “We have the ambition and the duty to build the path to go and get these guys. It will take a bit of time. But no, it was not a surprise.”
The more pointed undercurrent was aimed at Bahrain testing, where Mercedes had talked up Red Bull as the benchmark — and specifically flagged a supposed energy deployment advantage. Red Bull and Verstappen played that down at the time, and Mekies suggested the paddock’s usual testing theatre had helped muddy the waters.
“In terms of the gap to Mercedes, we said after testing that it was very difficult to evaluate, because we knew some games were being played to hide pace,” he said. “So I would not say that we are surprised with the gap we see here.”
Pressed on the size of it, he gave an estimate for Melbourne alone: “probably close to the second a lap”.
That number will raise eyebrows, but it also comes with context. Albert Park can exaggerate weaknesses — particularly when you’re already compromised by track position and spending the afternoon in traffic — and Mekies was careful to stress it’s “too early to say” what the broader picture looks like. Still, “close to a second” is not the sort of gap you casually erase with a front wing tweak and a set-up reset.
Red Bull’s immediate concern is nailing down what happened to Verstappen in qualifying. Mekies said the team is “pretty close” to understanding it, although not at 100 per cent yet, and admitted they took precautionary steps on Sunday to stay on the safe side.
“We think it’s a combination of factors,” he said. “We’ve tried to have a couple of actions to stay on the safe side for the race, and some more work will be done between here and China.”
Even in a weekend that read as oddly low-key by Red Bull standards, there was a bigger milestone ticking away in the background. This was the first race weekend with Red Bull operating as an autonomous manufacturer, and whatever the headline pace deficit, the powertrain simply got through the weekend and put points on the board. Mekies, understandably, leaned into that as the real win.
“The dominant feeling is that we have confirmed that we are in the fight,” he said, praising the work done in Milton Keynes over the last three years to get the project on track.
And then came the reality check — not just for outsiders, but for anyone tempted to read “in the fight” as “in the title fight”.
“That’s not what I’m saying,” Mekies insisted. “I’m saying we are in the fight because the season is very long, and being top four is the right starting point compared to where the project is at.”
That’s a different kind of Red Bull messaging: less chest-thumping, more project management. Mekies talked about a season that will become a “development race” and a “learning race”, acknowledging how difficult it’s been for teams to optimise performance run-to-run and session-to-session under the 2026 framework. In other words, plenty can move — but nothing comes for free.
For now, Red Bull leaves Australia with the sort of scoreline that won’t panic the team internally but will sharpen the mood. The pace is there to scrap with McLaren. The benchmark, at least in Melbourne, lived up at the front with Mercedes and Ferrari. And the task is familiar, even if the tools are new: out-develop, out-execute, and give Verstappen a car that doesn’t need recovery drives to keep its season alive.
