Red Bull admits frustrating F1 problem will not be fully fixed until 2027

Red Bull team principal Laurent Mekies has admitted that the start of races issue the team has faced will not be fully resolved until next season. This comes after an incident during the United States Grand Prix, where Red Bull driver Isack Hadjar dropped from third to fifth place at the start of the Austin race due to clutch over delivery issues.

Both Hadjar and his teammate Max Verstappen experienced radio problems during the race, with Verstappen joking that the team should start communicating in sign language. Mekies acknowledged that the team is frustrated by the ongoing radio issues, stating that they need to be fixed quickly as they are consuming a lot of energy. He admitted that the start performance is a more complex problem that involves multiple departments of the company, excluding aerodynamics.

The team's improved pace has made its race starts even more noticeable, given the strong competition around them. While Mekies is confident that the team will continue to close the gap with the competition until the end of the year, he also acknowledges that a full fix will require significant design and hardware changes, which is something they will see in the following year.