Max Verstappen News: Baffling issue cannot be fixed admit Red Bull

Verstappen and Mekies at Red Bull — Photo: © IMAGO

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Baffling Max Verstappen F1 issue cannot be fixed admit Red Bull

May not be fixed until 2027!

Dan Ripley Global Editor

Professional F1 journalist and analyst

Tuesday 22 September 2026 09:45

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Red Bull boss Laurent Mekies admits the team is at a loss to get to the bottom of a long-running Max Verstappen problem.

Throughout the course of 2026, the four-time world champion has been complaining about how his RB22 loses performance throughout a session, notably at the rear of the car, leading him to call it 'a car made of paper.'

It's a fairly unusual issue in that it seems to have carried over from previous Red Bull cars, despite this year's revamp of rules and regulations.

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Mekies though claims that while they are doing all they can to find a cause for the issue, they so far don't have much in the way of answers to satisfy their star man.

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Fixing Verstappen's paper car

"I don't think we are going to explain what it is and how we are going to fix it", the Red Bull team boss told Autosport.

"But I think Max is right [in saying] that there is an element of car performance degradation that is happening through a session and through a race.

"He's also right in saying that it's not a new issue. We are not sleeping on it. We have been trying to tackle that in different ways."

The issue did not come to light at the most recent Spanish Grand Prix at Madring where Verstappen finished second behind Mercedes' race winner Kimi Antonelli.

After Madrid, Mekies hopes this lays some foundations towards understanding what could be going wrong on, but admits the process will not be fixed this season and will extend into 2027.

"We had a couple of positive steps in that regard this weekend," Mekies added.

"It will never be the full picture, but we certainly have, through pain, made progress into our understanding. We don't have all the solutions on the car yet, but I trust that we are in the right way.

"It will not be fast, so it's something that will probably take us through next year."

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F1 Red Bull Max Verstappen Laurent Mekies