Red Bull is one of the teams bringing a major upgrade package to the Baku City Circuit. At Williams, the Azerbaijan Grand Prix had already been circled in red for a long time, while McLaren has arrived with significantly revised sidepods, among other changes.
The FIA’s technical document also shows five upgrades for Red Bull. The most significant of these is a new floor “with subtle changes within the permitted geometry to extract more local load whilst maintaining flow stability”. In line with that new floor, the sidepods and mirror assembly geometry have also been modified by the technical team led by Pierre Waché.
Red Bull has confirmed to Motorsport.com that both drivers will have the upgrade at their disposal this weekend, with Max Verstappen and Isack Hadjar running the same specification.
It is a significant package, but also immediately the final notable step of the year, Mekies revealed during Thursday’s team principals’ press conference.
“It's most probably our last significant package. We have switched a significant part of our resources, a very large majority of our resources, to next year's car”, the Red Bull team principal said.
“Now, it doesn't mean that we don't look at this season [anymore]. At first, we are still chasing our first win and that's an important target for the team. And secondly, as you know, the regulations have only very little changes for next year and there are huge opportunities for us to continue to learn in the remaining races, to make sure we arrive as prepared as we can for next year.
“But in short, yes, it's the last significant upgrade for this year.”
Should a victory fail to materialise in the remaining races this year, it would be the first season since 2015 – more than a decade ago – in which both Red Bull and Verstappen fail to win a single Grand Prix. Verstappen does not want to say outright that he expects not to win a race in 2026, but in Monza he did call that scenario very likely given the current state of affairs.
Nevertheless, it has to be said that Red Bull’s form has improved in recent weeks. Verstappen has been on the podium in five of the last seven Grands Prix, including the past two race weekends in Monza and Madrid.
It appears to point to an upward trend, although Mekies knows it is still not at the level Red Bull would ideally like to reach.
“Let me put it this way: we have had two strong weekends in Monza and in Madrid. Now strong weekends mean that you fight for the podium. I think we had five or six podiums in the last seven races, so that is a positive.
“Does it mean that we have had the fastest car in any of the races? No. So we are close, but we always knew the last one, two or three tenths would be the most difficult to gain compared to the best competition.
“There are four teams that pretty much are in within these two or three tenths. So you can slide very quickly from being competing from pole to being on the fourth row. So we think yes, we are getting closer. Whether or not it's going to be enough to get that last step that will give us the fastest car pace, for that we think we still have some work to do.”
