Laurent Mekies admits Red Bull’s start problems need major changes for 2027

Laurent Mekies says Red Bull’s dodgy starts can only be rectified via “significant design and hardware changes”, which can’t be made until next year’s car.

Getting the RB22 off the line consistently well has been a struggle in 2026, and Mekies says the issues can’t be fixed entirely until the introduction of next year’s car.

Laurent Mekies explains why Red Bull’s F1 start problems cannot be fixed in 2026

Verstappen’s challenge of Kimi Antonelli in the United States Grand Prix was compromised on the first lap when the Dutch driver struggled to get his Red Bull off the line cleanly.

Clearly beaten by Antonelli on the run up the hill, Verstappen came under serious pressure from both Ferraris into Turn 1, and was passed by Charles Leclerc into Turn 3.

While Verstappen got back past Leclerc later in the lap, the kerfuffle meant he lost touch with Antonelli from the off, and he was never quite able to haul himself back into contention against the Italian driver.

In the other Red Bull, Isack Hadjar was beaten into Turn 1 by both Ferraris, which also compromised his final result.

The starts have proven to be a consistent bugbear for Red Bull in F1 2026, an issue that hasn’t been apparent on the Racing Bulls car, which utilises the same Red Bull Powertrains unit in the back.

Verstappen complained about a “horrendous” start to the Sprint race in Singapore earlier this month, despite recovering to the win, whilst also struggling off the line in the wet conditions in Malaysia.

Speaking after the race, a very disgruntled Hadjar bemoaned the start performance of the RB22, calling for a full clutch redesign being needed.

“I did everything perfectly in terms of procedure, and then just had clutch over-delivery. These things are just out of my control,” he said.

The starts can’t be fixed this year, in his words, due to the nature of the problem: “The clutch needs a redesign because at the moment it’s too fragile. It’s not coping well with temperatures. It’s a real struggle.”

Speaking after the race, Red Bull team boss Laurent Mekies agreed with his drivers’ assessment, saying that the problems have become more visible in the latter half of the season as a side effect of the car’s increased competitiveness.

“The start is a slightly more complex issue to solve, meaning that the start performance is going across pretty much all the departments of the company, probably except aerodynamics,” he said.

“It’s the engine, it’s the gearbox, it’s the clutch, it’s many things, and we certainly have seen from the beginning of the season that we are not the benchmark in terms of launch performance.

“There is, as much as we have reduced the gap to competition and you may remember how bad our starts were at the beginning of the year, we are still not the benchmark.

“Yes, the fact that the car, in the meantime, improved a lot and is fighting closer to the front makes that deficit even more painful now because competition around us is very strong.

“So, on one side, I’m confident that we will continue to reduce the gap to the competition from now to the end of the year because every race we learn, and every race we come up with small ways to close the gap.”

Similarly to the ‘degradation’ issues that have befallen the car on occasion this year, a problem that has improved in recent races, Red Bull will seek to design out this starting flaw in the 2027 RB23.

“On the other side, I equally know that we will not be the benchmark before the end of the season,” Mekies said.

“That it will require some significant design and hardware trends, design and hardware changes, and that this is something that we will see only next year.”

More on Red Bull’s RB22

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The start issues weren’t the only problems to strike Red Bull again in the United States, with radio problems also recurring yet again following Verstappen’s issues in Singapore.

It’s far from the first time, as the four-time F1 World Champion quipped in the press conference after taking third place in the race.

“It’s already, I don’t know how many times this year,” he said.

“Maybe we should just start communicating in sign language. It’s probably cheaper as well. It’s a disaster. Yeah, it’s a disaster. It’s really frustrating, to be honest.”

Radio communications aren’t something new or technologically advanced by F1 standards, meaning the sudden emergence of issues related to driver/pitwall communications is an unwelcome distraction from what is usually a straightforward hurdle.

“It’s making everyone’s lives very difficult,” Mekies said.

“So it is true that it’s something that we would like to fix quite quickly because it’s an item that should be working without using too much of our energy.”

Asked what he believes is behind the issue, Mekies smiled.

“If we understood it, we would have solved it,” he said.

“So we don’t fully understand why we are being hit by these issues.

“Certainly, I have to admit that competition is doing a better job than us because we can obviously hear everyone’s radio, and we have been struggling more than what we would have liked to.”

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