Red Bull might consider the FIA’s assessment that it has the strongest power unit as a blessing and a curse, but at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix it was key to its first double Formula 1 podium.
After fixing Max Verstappen’s ill-behaving internal combustion engine after qualifying, an issue that triggered his painful Q3 which left him eighth on the grid, both he and team-mate Isack Hadjar were able to demonstrate Red Bull’s prowess in Baku to surge up to second and third respectively.
It marked Red Bull’s first double podium in almost two-and-a-half years and left the team accepting a victory would have been more likely without Verstappen’s qualifying woes.
But where did this turn of pace come from having been considered to have the fourth-fastest car on the grid for long periods of this season?
Red Bull team boss Laurent Mekies detailed a couple of factors, starting with its Red Bull-Ford power unit: “We have a fantastic PU, we have a fairly narrow band to use it at best. And it takes a lot of energy from everyone back in Milton Keynes and on the race track to try to keep us on the narrow window of performance. So that’s what we do every day, there was nothing different this weekend.
“Every track comes with this challenge on how you do that and you hear it with our radio communications, with our drivers. So getting the right energy management, getting the right deployment and getting the right power is certainly something that keeps us busy.”
Isack Hadjar, Red Bull Racing
Photo by: Joe Portlock / Getty Images
As is well documented, Red Bull has the most powerful internal combustion engine on the grid, and getting it into the “fairly narrow band” along with optimising electrical deployment meant it had plenty of punch on Baku’s straights. Red Bull’s sister squad, Racing Bulls, which runs the same engines, topped the speed trap in the race with Liam Lawson clocking 349.4km/h, while both Verstappen and Hadjar sat into the top 10 for highest speeds.
It was a tool that gave both drivers the ability to carve through the frontrunners and Mekies acknowledged had it not been for Verstappen’s engine problem in qualifying, an even better result was possible.
“We had two different issues in terms of power units,” he said. “It has cost us a lot yesterday [in qualifying]. But that’s what it is, that’s part of the game.
“I think in fairness Max was very strong from Friday onwards and probably would have been fighting for that first row or more yesterday without the issues we had with the PU. So of course, fixing that today [in the race] with the new engine has allowed us to go back to the competitive level that we were hoping to have.”
Verstappen felt Baku was Red Bull’s best – and potentially last – chance of a first win in 2026 with dominant squad Mercedes set to deliver a major upgrade package next weekend at the Bahrain GP in Malaysia.
Mekies echoed the common theme of upgrades having a major influence on the performance order in F1 this season and, despite his team admitting it will not deliver another major update package this year, he remains optimistic it will still have opportunities to avoid a first win-less F1 season for the team since 2015.
Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing
Photo by: Alex Pantling / LAT Images via Getty Images
“We have seen this year the pecking order has been alternating based on the timing of the upgrades,” he said. “I think what is however important is that in the fairly long timeframe between Australia and here, where we didn’t have a big package coming, we have nonetheless managed to close that gap.
“If you look at Madrid, we were a tenth-and-a-half from pole in Madrid, I think we were two tenths from pole in Monza. So we have managed to close that gap with everyone in the team, chassis side, PU side, extracting from the actual car specifications. And then yes, the upgrades today probably gave us another edge and has eaten up that last tenth.
“We need to see how it’s lasting on other tracks and then how we will react to the other competitors.”
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