Max Verstappen Identifies Red Bull's "Big Priority" for Second Half of 2026 Season

Pulse Sports Team 11:05 - 15 August 2026

Max Verstappen has outlined Red Bull's "big priority" for the second half of the 2026 season, which kicks off with his home Dutch Grand Prix next week.

During Formula 1's summer break, Max Verstappen finds himself a staggering 110 points behind championship leader Andrea Kimi Antonelli. Last season, the four-time world champion made a spectacular comeback after the Zandvoort race, finishing on the podium in every subsequent event. This time, however, he emphatically does not expect a similar scenario.

Red Bull's current issues are more complex. The team started the season significantly behind, which was anticipated, albeit for different reasons. Before the campaign began, the biggest question mark surrounded their own power unit, yet it proved surprisingly competitive.

On the chassis side, however, the deficiencies were more pronounced. Add to this the RB22's overweight status, and it becomes clear why Red Bull was more than 1.3 seconds off the pace in pure race trim in Australia and China.

This gap narrowed to two-tenths of a second per lap in Belgium and Hungary, though Verstappen believes these figures don't tell the whole story. In Budapest, the Dutchman stated that Red Bull faces a new problem every weekend, having previously joked that all the setbacks this year would lead him to spend the winter break like a Buddha in Tibet.

On a more serious note, Verstappen insists Red Bull must get these issues under control, especially after experiencing what he described as "car degradation" in Hungary – the car worsening over the course of the weekend and even during a single session.

"First, we need to find more overall performance. Then we need to fix our issues, which sometimes cause us to simply lose pace over a weekend or even from the start to the finish of a race. So, yes, that's actually a big priority," Verstappen stated. "Overall, it's been very difficult [in the first half of the season]. There have been some good moments, some bright and shining moments, I suppose, but generally, it's been tough. So I think we need to try to be more solid, a bit more complete, to have smoother weekends. We also need to find more speed.""Ultimately, it's that simple. And besides finding more performance, it's about not having these problems with the current package," the four-time champion added.