Max Verstappen encouraged by Red Bull’s start to 2026 after ‘hitting the ground running’ with new engine

Max Verstappen has described a “good start” for Red Bull in 2026 following the debut of their new car and new power unit at the Barcelona Shakedown.

After some two decades of works and supply engine deals, Red Bull made the call to go in-house ahead of F1’s new regulation cycle – preparing a bespoke power unit within a dedicated Red Bull Powertrains facility at Milton Keynes over the last few years.

Verstappen and new-for-2026 team mate Isack Hadjar completed the first laps with the Red Bull-powered RB22 during last week’s running in Spain – and the initial comments from both drivers have been positive.

“I think overall pretty decent,” reflected Verstappen, who was shaking off a cold, as the Shakedown drew to a close.

“The first morning I didn’t get to do too many laps, also with the weather basically, but [the final day] was good. I did a lot of laps, we learned a lot. Still a lot of things that we want to look into and do better, but that’s normal, I guess.

“In general, with the new engine, to do the amount of laps that we did is very nice, and it’s a good start for us, so yeah, positive, but it’s still very early days.”

When asked about the key takeaways on the engine side, after Hadjar’s “impressive” assessment, the Dutchman added: “Still a work in progress, but I think we’ve hit the ground running quite well with those things.

“It’s still a very complicated formula, I think, for everyone, so there’s still quite a bit of work to do, but it’s normal.”

Speaking earlier in the week, Red Bull team boss Laurent Mekies hailed the entire organisation’s efforts in getting to this point, having previously called the decision to build a power unit from scratch “as crazy as it gets”.

“I have to say, in terms of what we were expecting from the power unit on these first couple of days, I can only repeat how proud we are from everybody back at base to have managed to give us something that we can actually run with,” he commented.

“Of course, it’s very early days and of course, nothing is perfect, but we could run, we could start to learn, work as one team, so that was a huge satisfaction.

“It doesn’t change the size of the journey in front of us, but certainly it’s a first moment that everybody in Milton Keynes should be proud of.”

Red Bull’s new power unit, which has been designed in partnership with American automotive giants Ford, will also be used by their sister team, Racing Bulls, in 2026.