Red Bull chief Helmut Marko insists McLaren are making a Toto Wolff mistake

Red Bull's motorsport advisor Helmut Marko has reassured the team's rivals that 'they know what they are doing' ahead of F1's 2026 regulations change.

Next season, the sport will welcome the first major regulations change since 2022, when the grid saw the return of the ground effect era.

The sport's next era has been put in place by the FIA with the aim of improving sustainability and encouraging more competitive, close racing.

The 2026 cars will be smaller and more agile, and the regulations overhaul is likely to reset the competitive order entirely.

As a result, many teams have already pivoted their focus away from developing 2025 machinery, despite the fact there are still five rounds left in this year's championship- but not Red Bull.

Are Red Bull over-developing 2025 car?

Star driver Max Verstappen recently admitted that if anyone had said he was a contender for this year's drivers' title just a few weeks ago, he would have called them an 'idiot'.

But after last weekend's US GP, the Dutchman is now back in serious contention after both McLarens DNF'd in the COTA sprint and Verstappen picked up every possible point on offer.

The gap has now been slashed to his title rivals Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris, with Red Bull one of the only teams that have continued to bring updates to their car this year.

For this weekend's Mexican GP, Red Bull have made changes to the front corner, engine cover, floor body and edge wing of their cars, with the team citing reliability as the primary reason for the former two and 'local load' as the reason for the others.

In contrast, McLaren have not brought a single update to Mexico having halted developments on the MCL39 long ago, with team principal Andrea Stella even saying: “Perhaps they are happier [at Red Bull] to give up a little bit of 2026, because they might have some other issues for 2026 whereby they say, let's focus on 2025."

But Marko isn't bothered by the opinions of his F1 rivals, laughing off the idea that Red Bull are at risk of over-developing the RB21 and sacrificing performance in 2026.

“It was the same story in 2021,” Marko responded. “Toto was really worried that we wouldn't be competitive in 2022.”

2021 marked the last time Toto Wolff's Mercedes team were victorious in the constructors' championship, with Red Bull picking up both titles in 2022 and 2023.

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