Max Verstappen has spoken about feeling ‘degradation’ in terms of overall car performance and aerodynamics while driving on track, which is entirely separate from the more usual tyre degradation.
With Red Bull still chasing its first win in F1 2026, the overall competitive picture of the RB22 has been difficult to establish: there are weekends in which Verstappen has been able to wrestle the car to a podium finish, such as at last weekend’s race in Madrid, but there have also been races where Red Bull has very clearly been the fourth-quickest of the leading four teams.
Part of that inconsistent picture has been the presence of what Verstappen has referred to as ‘car degradation’, which he spoke about at the Hungarian Grand Prix after spinning out in qualifying.
On that occasion, Verstappen said that, “we don’t have tyre deg, we have car degradation,” although he emphasised that this is a separate issue from the rear wing downforce reattachment issues that caused spins for him in Austria and Great Britain.
“We keep having different problems all the time, and that’s probably the biggest issue at the moment, that there is always something else that arises, and that’s not good,” the Red Bull driver said.
Since then, Verstappen has revealed to Dutch media that he has had to hold back from attacking kerbs as hard as he’d like, due to components on the rear of the car not always being strong enough to take the punishment, and that the issues are nothing new: he has had to worry about such matters for “years”, although the nature of what the problem is exactly is, understandably, not being fully explained by either him or the team.
This was a similar stance taken by Mekies after the Spanish Grand Prix, in which Verstappen finished second, who confirmed the latest on the situation and said that, in all likelihood, fully dialling out the issues Verstappen is feeling may take until the RB23 is launched.
“I don’t think we are going to explain what it is and how we are going to fix it,” he told media when asked about the car degradation issue.
“I think Max is right that there is an element of car performance degradation that is happening through a session as well as through a race. He is right in saying it is not a new issue.
“We are not sleeping on it. We have been trying to tackle that in different ways; obviously, I consider it a complex issue. Otherwise, we would have got to the bottom of it.
“But everyone is very constructive about it and tries to take small steps at a time to be able to get to the bottom of it finally. And we had a couple of positive steps in that regard this weekend.
“It will never be the full picture, but we certainly have gone through pain, made progress in our understanding, and we don’t have all the solutions yet in the car.
“But I trust that we are on the right way. It will not be fast, so it’s something that probably will take us through next year.”
While declining to speak about the specifics of the performance-sapping issues, and what exactly it is on the car that is creating the adverse feeling for Verstappen behind the wheel, Mekies said, “It’s some aspect of the car’s performance that sometimes doesn’t stay at the optimum level, and it’s serious lap time, and so it’s something there is no doubt that we have everyone trying to improve that for the future.”
