Red Bull's final major 2026 F1 upgrade: Baku package and the Bahrain win, as assessed by Formula1.com

Baku package confirmed as the last major step of 2026

Red Bull arrived at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix with what the team described as its final major upgrade of the 2026 Formula 1 season, debuting the new parts on the RB22 at Baku. Crash.net reported team principal Laurent Mekies confirming on the Thursday in Baku that the modifications would mark the last notable step of the year, with the team switching its focus to 2027. "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", Mekies said. ²

Pressed on the point, Mekies left little room for ambiguity. "But in short, yes, it's the last significant upgrade for this year", he said, according to Crash.net's reporting from Baku. The team's official submission to the FIA listed five changes to the RB22, per the FIA technical documentation cited by Readmotorsport: a new floor, revised sidepods and altered mirror assembly geometry as the headline items, alongside the cooling louvres and halo fairing. ²³⁴

Formula1.com, in its later Monday Morning Debrief analysis, listed the same package as Red Bull's final major upgrade of the year, comprising a new floor body and diffuser, new sidepods, new cooling louvres, new mirrors and a new halo fairing. The publication noted the package was unveiled in Baku around ten days before it underpinned Verstappen's victory at the Bahrain Grand Prix. ¹

What the upgrade was designed to do

The centrepiece of the package was a revised floor and diffuser intended to generate more aerodynamic load while keeping the airflow stable, so the car gains downforce without becoming less predictable as speed, ride height and balance change. Unchained Media's analysis explained that the sidepod's connection to the floor was revised to support the new floor geometry, while the mirrors and halo fairing changes were aimed at improving airflow reaching components further back on the car, with the cooling louvres adapted to suit the revised bodywork. ⁵

Fervogear's report, crediting the FIA submission, described the floor work as subtle geometry changes within the rules designed to raise local load while maintaining a consistent aerodynamic platform, with the programme led by chief technical officer Pierre Waché. Baku's layout, which prizes aerodynamic efficiency, braking stability and traction, was cited by the same outlet as a context in which the floor and sidepod changes were designed to balance straightline demands against cornering consistency. ⁴

Identical specification for Verstappen and Hadjar

Red Bull fitted the upgrade to both of its cars in Baku, with Max Verstappen and Isack Hadjar running identical specification. Readmotorsport reported Motorsport.com confirming the identical parts shortly after Red Bull's own statement, with neither driver holding priority over the new floor and sidepods, giving the team a clean comparison between the pair. ³

Technical director Pierre Waché told Crash.net after Thursday practice that the update had delivered what the team was expecting. "It was quite positive, both cars had the upgrade. That is a good sign for us, to be able to produce on track this upgrade. From the first analysis in FP1, we more or less delivered what we expected. That is a good sign", Waché said. ²

Hadjar, returning at Baku after a wrist injury lay-off that kept him out of the previous three races, was positive about the package despite limited running. "It feels good. It's been a minute, so it was good. I had a good feeling. Not many laps, unfortunately, today, but this will come. I'm not really worried too much about the pace", Hadjar said, adding per Crash.net that the car felt "better than when I left it" at the Hungarian Grand Prix. ²

The win Red Bull was still chasing

The resource shift to 2027 did not mean Red Bull had abandoned the current season. "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", Mekies said, as reported by Crash.net. He added that because the regulations change only very little for next year, the remaining races offered huge opportunities to keep learning and arrive as prepared as possible for 2027. ²⁵

Fervogear reported before the race that a failure to win in 2026 would leave Red Bull and Verstappen with their first winless season since 2015, underlining what was riding on the team's stated first-win target. ⁴

Form entering the Baku weekend supported that ambition: Verstappen had finished on the podium in five of the previous seven Grands Prix, including strong weekends at Monza and Madrid, according to Mekies himself, quoted by Readmotorsport. But the team principal was candid about the car's standing. "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", he said. ³

Mekies noted that four teams sat within that two-to-three-tenths band, meaning a car could, in his words, slide very quickly from competing for pole to starting on the fourth row. Whether the final step to the fastest car would come remained, in his view, work still to be done. Fervogear likewise characterised the two-to-three-tenths figure as Red Bull's own estimate of the deficit to the pacesetters. ³⁴

From Baku to Bahrain: Formula1.com credits the package with a first win

Formula1.com reported that the Baku package delivered the outcome the team had been chasing, with Verstappen taking an ultimately comfortable victory at the Bahrain Grand Prix. The publication's Monday Morning Debrief argued the win was arranged when Red Bull unveiled the upgraded RB22 in Baku some ten days earlier, rather than by any single qualifying performance. That assessment of the upgrade's decisive role is the publication's analysis rather than a verified team or FIA finding; the documented package contents and the race result as reported by Formula1.com are the established elements here. ¹

The same Formula1.com analysis noted that qualifying for the race was disappointing on its own terms, with engine troubles and yellow flags playing a significant role in Verstappen starting an underwhelming eighth. It also reported that George Russell retired from the race. Its headline framing of how the upgrade cured the car's weaknesses is likewise its own interpretation, and it stands as a single-publication account in this report rather than independently corroborated reporting. ¹

What remained uncertain at the time of the Baku announcement was whether the package would close the gap entirely. Unchained Media's report highlighted that Verstappen had repeatedly described the car losing performance as sessions and races progressed, a broader issue Red Bull had not publicly identified a precise cause for, and that Mekies had indicated a complete solution could extend into 2027. The Baku package was therefore presented as Red Bull's last major attempt to move the RB22 closer to the front while races and a win remained available, and by the Bahrain round it had, per Formula1.com's account, produced that win. ⁵¹