Red Bull’s technical director did not soften the message in Baku when he was asked whether the team could still cure the problem that has haunted their season.

“I’m not confident. Otherwise, I will stop working. You are never confident even more when you have this type of issue,” Wache told reporters.

“It’s a massive issue. But to be confident that it would be a full fix, I am not.”

The problem Verstappen has flagged for months is a car that degrades as track time builds up: the RB22 falls further from the front the longer a session or a race runs. Mekies conceded the Dutchman’s diagnosis was accurate and warned the fix “will not be fast” and is “something that probably will take us through next year.”

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Last significant package already on the car

The five-part upgrade Red Bull ran on both cars in Baku was, in Mekies’ own words, “most probably our last significant package”. The team principal confirmed that a “very large majority” of the department’s resources have already been moved on to the 2027 car.

“It’s most probably our last significant package. We have switched a significant part of our resources, a very large majority of our resources, to next year’s car,” Mekies said.

“Now, it doesn’t mean that we don’t look at this season. At first, we are still chasing our first win and that’s an important target for the team.”

That “first win” line is the clearest signal of how far the season has drifted from the world champion the paddock knew a year ago.

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139 points off the lead with rounds to spare

Verstappen sits sixth in the drivers’ standings on 163 points, 139 adrift of Mercedes leader Kimi Antonelli, according to the Sky Sports championship table updated after Baku. Mercedes lead the constructors’ standings on 538, with Red Bull fourth on 263 behind Ferrari and McLaren.

The immediate context on track is more encouraging. George Russell held Verstappen off by 0.196 seconds at the finish of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix at the weekend, with Isack Hadjar completing a Red Bull double podium in third. Wache called the on-track rollout of the five-part upgrade “a good sign” and said the package had delivered what the team expected in first practice.

Singapore comes next, then a 2027 reset

Marina Bay is the kind of circuit that punishes exactly the fault Wache has now labelled a massive issue: low-speed corners, heavy traffic, and long stints in which small degradations compound.

With regulations shifting only marginally into 2027, whatever Red Bull banks about the RB22’s chassis behaviour over the final rounds is meant to feed straight into the next car rather than change the one Verstappen is racing.

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The Singapore Grand Prix at Marina Bay Street Circuit runs on Sunday 11 October, with Verstappen due to line up in the same specification he raced in Baku.

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