Red Bull think they still "need to find between four and five tenths"

Red Bull left the Barcelona‑Catalunya Grand Prix with a result that accurately reflected the limitations of their current package — competitive enough to fight inside the top group, but still lacking the pace required to challenge for victory.

Team principal Laurent Mekies described the weekend as a realistic snapshot of where the RB20 stands on a circuit dominated by power sensitivity and long, high‑speed corners.

Red Bull opted for an aggressive approach with Max Verstappen, starting him on soft tyres to maximise his launch. The Dutchman held position but could not attack Lando Norris ahead, and although he executed a well‑managed three‑stop strategy, he ultimately lacked the raw speed to stay with the front‑running Ferraris and Mercedes.

The four-time F1 world champion inherited fourth place after Mercedes driver Andrea Kimi Antonelli retired, securing the maximum result available on pace.

Isack Hadjar’s race was more challenging. A burst of wheelspin off the line dropped him from sixth to 14th, but the Frenchman recovered superbly, carving through the midfield with a series of clean, decisive overtakes.

Like Verstappen, he ran a three‑stop strategy, pitting late thanks to a comfortable gap behind in case of a late Safety Car. His comeback drive earned him valuable points and further strengthened his growing reputation.

Mekies summarised the weekend: “The race produced an accurate picture of where we are with our current package on this sort of track.

"Coming into the weekend, we knew that a power and high‑speed corners circuit like Barcelona would present a slightly more complicated challenge than other types of circuit.”

He noted that the team could fight the frontrunners but not threaten for the win: “What we saw today mirrored the situation in qualifying, in that we could fight with the other top teams but we did not have the pace to challenge for the win today. To do that, we still need to find between four and five tenths.”

Despite this, Mekies emphasised that progress has been made since the start of the season — even if the final steps are proving the most difficult: “Nevertheless, we have made progress compared to where we were at the start of the season, although as always, the final tenths are going to be the hardest to find.

"Everyone in Milton Keynes is working flat out to bring further developments as we push to close this gap," Mekies continued.

“Today, we picked up all the points that were available to us based on our pace: a very strong race from Max who was on a well‑managed and quite different three‑stop strategy to those ahead.”

“As for Isack, after a dramatic launch which saw him lose several places, he stayed cool and fought back with some great overtakes and a strong pace to score good points.”

Following technical issues in Monaco, Mekies also highlighted the reliability and performance of the Red Bull Ford Powertrains unit: “And from a Red Bull Ford Powertrains point of view it was great to see that all cars finished in the points.”