Red Bull "managed to close the gap to the fastest from one second to a couple of tenths," claims Mekies
Red Bull delivered its strongest race performance of the 2026 Formula 1 season at its home circuit in Spielberg, with Max Verstappen finishing just over a second behind race winner George Russell and Isack Hadjar climbing from eighth on the grid to an impressive sixth.
After a difficult start to the campaign, during which Red Bull found itself significantly off the pace of the front-runners, the Austrian Grand Prix offered clear evidence that the team's extensive development programme is beginning to pay dividends.
Verstappen showed excellent race pace throughout the afternoon and, despite a strategic decision that ultimately left him with too much ground to recover, he closed rapidly on Russell in the closing laps before narrowly running out of time.
The Dutchman had already made an excellent start, climbing from fifth to third on the opening lap before overtaking Lewis Hamilton to move into a net second place.
However, Red Bull opted not to react immediately to Russell's final pit stop, instead extending Verstappen's stint despite the powerful undercut around the Red Bull Ring. That left the reigning world champion around 10 seconds adrift after his own stop, a gap he almost erased before taking the chequered flag.
Meanwhile, Hadjar continued his impressive rookie campaign with another mature drive. The Frenchman battled wheel-to-wheel with Hamilton, Lando Norris and Charles Leclerc throughout the race before securing sixth place, underlining the pace of the RB22.
Team Principal Laurent Mekies hailed the weekend as a major step forward for Red Bull, describing it as the team's strongest performance of the year and highlighting just how much progress has been made since the opening races of the season.
"Our best result of the year. We produced a very strong performance this afternoon, without a doubt our strongest race of the season so far. The most satisfying element is the pace: I think Kimi was quickest today and Max was maybe a little bit quicker than George, but then your grid position also has an impact.
"In qualifying, it was clear how much progress we have made, even if the grid positions didn't reflect that. On what is a very difficult track, made even more demanding by the very hot conditions, we got very close to the sort of pace needed to win.
"That is a testament to how effective the work carried out back at the factory was. If you look back to the start of the season, we have managed to close the gap to the fastest from one second to around a couple of tenths.
"The fight is not over yet, with everyone continuing to bring updates and we will need more to come from our side. Max was exceptional today in all phases of the race. We did not win, but we were lacking very little, maybe just hundredths of a second and it was certainly a good fight.
"Isack also delivered another solid performance today as he continues to make progress, so overall it's a step in the right direction. It's also worth noting that all four cars using the Red Bull Ford Powertrains finished in the points today."
