VERSTAPPEN HANDS HIS HELMET TO DEPARTING RED BULL MECHANIC AFTER 20 YEARS

Max Verstappen gave one of his race helmets to Ole Schack, the Red Bull mechanic who worked his final Formula 1 race at Interlagos after 20 years with the team. Red Bull marked the occasion too, with a one-off can listing Schack's career statistics.

The helmet carried the special design Verstappen used for the Brazilian Grand Prix, and footage of the handover was shared on social media. Schack, a Dane, was Verstappen's number-two mechanic and worked on the front end of the RB22. He had been with the team since its first season in 2005 and was the first person inside Red Bull to show Christian Horner around the team's factory.

The farewell came on a weekend when Verstappen was otherwise frustrated with Red Bull. He started 21st after a new power unit was fitted and charged through to second behind Lando Norris. After the flag, though, he told the team over the radio: "I'm sorry, but what a disaster to drive."

Verstappen praises Schack, Schack compares him to Ronaldo and Messi

Verstappen was brief but clear about his mechanic. "He's unbelievable," he told Viaplay. Schack returned the compliment in a farewell interview with De Telegraaf, describing a driver whose personality changes when the car is ready to go. "Max is an incredibly relaxed guy when he's not in the car. He enjoys having a laugh and is great to be around," Schack said. He added that in qualifying, he sees a different look in Verstappen's eyes from the one he has in Friday practice.

He then went further and compared Verstappen to the two biggest names in football: "He's like Ronaldo and Messi, but in a Formula 1 car. Max has that little bit extra that you simply can't teach someone."

Hij is als Ronaldo en Messi, maar dan in een Formule 1-auto. Max heeft net dat beetje extra dat je iemand niet kunt aanleren.

- OLE SCHACK TO DE TELEGRAAF (ORIGINAL IN DUTCH)

Schack is not leaving for a rival team. He is stepping away from the sport to spend more time at home. "I miss my family and I want to give something back to them, because by being away so much I have of course been a bit selfish," he told De Telegraaf. He also looked back on his years in Milton Keynes: "I'm proud to have been part of this team, through all the ups and downs. That final time will be special, but above all, I realise how much I owe Red Bull."

Red Bull garage keeps changing around Verstappen

Schack's career at Red Bull spanned three eras of the team. He worked as a mechanic for David Coulthard from 2005 to 2008 and for Sebastian Vettel from 2009 to 2014, before moving to Verstappen's car. In his farewell interview, he said he had missed only three races since 2005.

His departure first became known in March and in his farewell interviews, Schack gave family as his reason. Verstappen is losing another familiar face on his side of the garage.

Gianpiero Lambiase is leaving for McLaren, and Red Bull confirmed that Tom Hart would replace him as Verstappen's race engineer in Austin, Brazil and Las Vegas. That makes Interlagos the first weekend on which Verstappen had both a new voice on the radio and a farewell in the garage.

- Ben Hunt

RED BULL REVEALS SEVEN-PART UPGRADE FOR CRUCIAL HOME F1 RACE AT AUSTRIAN GP

Red Bull has revealed an extensive upgrade package for the F1 Austrian Grand Prix.

Red Bull has brought a major upgrade to Austria

Red Bull has unveiled a substantial upgrade package for its home Formula 1 race, the Austrian Grand Prix. 

After bringing its first upgrades of the season to Miami, Red Bull has now unleashed an extensive raft of updates in a bid to improve its RB22 following a difficult start to the 2026 campaign. 

In total, Red Bull has made seven changes to its car for its home event at Spielberg. Red Bull has introduced a revised sidepod inlet and engine cover for reliability reasons to improve cooling.

Red Bull's upgrades for the Austrian Grand Prix

In terms of performance-related updates, Red Bull has made changes to the surface of the RB22’s floor, floor board, as well as reprofiling the rear suspension layout and rear corner.

Red Bull has also introduced a new rear wing and exhaust tailpipe, which features a revised overlap between the tailpipe exit profile and the supporting tailpipe bracket. 

Red Bull is aiming to find more aerodynamic performance and continue its weight-saving programme, having started the season with a car that was 12kg overweight. That figure was halved thanks to its Miami package. 

All eyes will be on Red Bull at its home race, particularly regarding the future of Max Verstappen. 

When asked how crucial the impact of the Austria upgrade and coming races will be for his future at Red Bull, Verstappen replied: “I think it's just crucial for us as a team, we want to improve from where we started this season to where we want to end it.

“We know that we are lacking performance, so it's more about just trying to improve the car. I think that's what everyone wants.”

Verstappen in the Austria paddock

The four-time world champion added: “Those are, of course, also the easier steps to make when you're far behind. The hardest step is always the last one, to really fight for the win. 

“So let's see how we can do that, to be in that fight again. I'm not sure [if that can happen this weekend]. But for sure, the team is always giving it 100% and pushing flat out to make the car faster.

“But we know that other teams are also constantly bringing upgrades. So we just need to always try and find a little bit more to try and close that gap. It was quite clear in Barcelona that there was still a gap, so hopefully it can be a bit better this weekend.”

Other front-running teams have joined Red Bull in bringing updates this weekend. 

Mercedes has a new front suspension and engine cover to improve performance and cooling respectively. The German manufacturer has also brought a battery fix to Austria, following Andrea Kimi Antonelli's late retirement at Barcelona.

Ferrari has brought a total of four updates, including changes to the SF-26’s front wing endplate, RV tail, floor board and mirror stay, while McLaren has introduced an updated rear corner and an “experimental rear wing” that will be trialled by reigning world champion Lando Norris on Friday. 

- Lewis Larkam

ZAK BROWN HINTS MCLAREN COULD UNLEASH IT'S OWN 'MACARENA' WING

 

©McLaren

McLaren may be preparing to join Formula 1’s latest aerodynamic arms race after Zak Brown dropped a strong hint that the Woking squad is seriously evaluating its own version of the now-infamous “Macarena” rotating rear wing.

What began as a curious Ferrari experiment earlier this season is rapidly becoming one of the paddock’s hottest technical trends – and now McLaren appears to be circling the innovative concept.

After briefly trialing the idea in pre-season testing, the Scuderia gave the rotating element a more complete outing in Miami. Red Bull then arrived in Florida armed with its own interpretation as part of a major RB22 upgrade package.

The result? A clear performance leap, although it’s unclear how much of that improvement was to the novel rear wing.

Max Verstappen returned to the sharp end with a front-row qualifying performance, while McLaren itself enjoyed its strongest weekend of the season as Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri secured a double podium finish.

And Brown openly admitted the reigning constructors’ champions have been paying close attention.

“We have. As you can imagine, all the teams look at what each other do,” Brown told Sky F1. “It’s clever and we think it could be beneficial, so not surprised to see another team using it.”

That comment alone has ignited speculation that McLaren engineers are already deep into studying how to integrate a similar concept onto the MCL40.

A consolidating field

The intrigue surrounding the rotating rear wing is only adding fuel to an increasingly intense development battle at the front of the grid.

After a shaky opening to the season, McLaren and Red Bull both made visible gains in Miami, tightening the fight with Mercedes and Ferrari as Formula 1 edges toward another ultra-competitive era.

Brown believes the field compression has already begun.

“They’ve been quick all weekend, so they’ve got some great development on the car,” he said of Red Bull.

“Obviously [there’s] the Ferrari and then the Mercedes, so you have your top four. If you look at the lap times now compared to Australia, the whole field is starting to get consolidated.

“So I think 0in not too short order, we’ll be back to where we were with a very competitive, tight grid.”

And if McLaren does unleash its own “Macarena” wing in the coming races, Formula 1’s aerodynamic chess match may become even more fascinating.

- Michael Delaney

MCLAREN SPY 'VERY INTERESTING' TRICK ON HEAVILY UPGRADED RED BULL

An aspect of the new, heavily upgraded Red Bull has caught the eye of McLaren chief Andrea Stella.

© XPBimages

McLaren boss Andrea Stella has singled out the sidepod design of Red Bull's heavily upgraded RB22 as "very interesting" and said that "each team" will be looking to extract its secrets.

For F1's return at the Miami Grand Prix, most teams brought a huge upgrade package, including McLaren and Red Bull, with the most visibly eye-catching being Red Bull's interpretation of Ferrari's 'Macarena' rear wing. 

However, it was another area of Max Verstappen and Isack Hadjar's RB22 that caught the eye of McLaren team principal Stella, as he explained how he felt the Milton Keynes squad had been "quite smart and innovative" in its upgrade approach.

"For those who are technically interested, we are in a very, very interesting phase," Stella told media, including RacingNews365. 

"It is very interesting because if you see the sidepod concept that Red Bull introduced, it is quite different to the sidepod concept that, for instance, Mercedes and Ferrari have adopted, and the McLaren style is further different.

"There will be a stabilisation at some stage, a convergence, but we look like we are quite far from this convergence.

"So I think there will be a process of looking at each other, testing things and certainly each team will be testing, taking a look at the Red Bull concept to see the advantages.

"They have been quite smart and innovative in the way they have used some legality concessions to introduce such geometry.

"I think the overall designs of the cars are far from converging. This doesn't mean that some things have already started to look like: 'Oh, that is the direction everyone has taken', but with the 2025 cars, after a few years of the regulations, they started to look very similar to each other.

"I think we are still far from these conditions."

© XPBimages

- Jake Nichol & Ian Parkes

RED BULL ISSUE APOLOGY OVER MAJOR F1 CAR PROBLEM

Red Bull faced significant issues in the opening phase of the new F1 season.

© Red Bull Content Pool

Red Bull technical director Pierre Waché has apologised for a car issue that served as a major limitation during the opening rounds of the current season.

The RB22 proved to be uncompetitive at the opening three rounds of the year, unable to get in the mix at the fight towards the front of the field.

Red Bull arrived back in the paddock in Miami after a five-week gap in the calendar, and Max Verstappen quickly noted an improved sensation behind the wheel before going on to qualify on the front row of the grid.

As part of its extensive upgrade package brought to Florida, Red Bull completely changed its steering rack after identifying the core of the problem.

“First, we had to make sure that he had an issue,” Waché told Autosport.

“Then it was about identifying where it was coming from, and that takes a long time. And after that, it was about fixing the problem.

“I'm sorry that we didn't fix it before. We tried multiple stuff and it didn't work. 

“Some parts also took a long time to arrive, but I think the engineering team did a very good job to achieve it.”

Waché revealed Red Bull was aware of the problem before the April break but could only produce the fix in time for the Miami race.

“A little bit before that [Miami],” he said regarding the timeline of discovering the issue.  

“But the break gave us time to produce the parts, I would say. Otherwise, in Bahrain and Jeddah we would not have had the parts.”

- Fergal Walsh

RED BULL UNVEIL THROWBACK F1 LIVERY FOR 2026 SEASON AT DETROIT LAUNCH EVENT

Red Bull has unveiled a throwback blue livery for the upcoming 2026 Formula 1 season at a launch event in Detroit.

Red Bull has partnered with Ford for the new engine era and unveiled the glossy electric blue look at the company's Detroit base on Thursday night at Michigan Central Station.

As part of F1's new era of regulations, Red Bull is manufacturing their own engine in collaboration with the U.S. car company for the first time since it joined F1 in 2005.

Red Bull and Racing Bulls are the first teams to unveil their liveries for 2026.

Max Verstappen and new teammate Frenchman, Isack Hadjar, who stepped up from Racing Bulls last year, were in attendance.

In a statement, the team said the RB22's livery marks "a return to the gloss finish first seen when the team made its debut back in 2005.

"To acknowledge this bold move, the RB22 will wear a livery inspired by Red Bull's original look in F1. It harks back to a more classic Red Bull Racing presence, sharpening reflections, boosting contrast under the lights and making heritage elements of the new livery feel richer and more premium at speed."

Team principal Laurent Mekies said: "2026 marks the start of a new and significant era for Formula 1 and for Red Bull. We wanted our livery to reflect this, while also giving a nod to Red Bull Racing's beginnings. We are in F1 because of the dream of one man, Dietrich Mateschitz, and several years later, he had another dream, to create an engine.

"This livery is designed to celebrate that spirit that we entered the sport with. In the year that an Oracle Red Bull Racing car carries a Red Bull Ford Powertrains PU for the first time, it felt only right to reflect some of our history in our livery."

Verstappen said everyone is "very excited.

"The colours have," Verstappen added, "changed a little bit. It is much better. I like the shine, blue is my favourite colour. I like the outlines on the Red Bull logo. It is back and much more fresh. It is all still a bit unknown with the engine and the dimension of the car has changed a bit.

"For us drivers, initially it will take a bit of time to adjust and important on test days to get our laps in and optimise as much as possible. It is always better to have an ending like that (2025) and everybody is excited to start a new chapter."

RED BULL

Max Verstappen will use number 3 from 2026 -- the number of his ex-teammate Daniel Ricciardo. Red Bull Content Pool

Laurent Mekies said the livery was a "nod to Red Bull Racing's beginnings." Red Bull Content Pool

(L-R) Pierre Wache, Technical Director, Isack Hadjar, Max Verstappen, Jim Farley, CEO of Ford, Oliver Mintzlaff, Red Bull GmbH MD, Laurent Mekies, Team Principal, Alisha Palmowski, F1 Academy driver and Phillip Prew, Technical Operations Director Mark Thompson/Getty Images

Oracle Red Bull Racing and Visa Cash App Racing Bulls team photo at the joint launch event in Detroit. Joe Gall / Red Bull Content Pool

- ESPN