Red Bull reborn, Stella and Norris amazed by those who are amazed: “They have brought updates and they are a great team”

Back in contention for victory. In the last regulatory cycle, there were two reference teams – and those who lost their world championship titles -: McLaren and Red Bull. The technical revolution of 2026 has put both teams in difficulty, but now it seems that both Woking and Milton Keynes are back on the right path. Probably too late to be able to dream of world championships, but perhaps early enough to think about the possibility of being protagonists for the ‘stage’ victories. McLaren were the first to react, taking four podiums so far this season, evenly split between Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri. In Austria, however, Red Bull also forcefully returned to the top positions, taking a good second place with Max Verstappen. The Dutchman inserted himself ‘as a sandwich’ between the two Mercedes of Russell and Antonelli and demonstrated that he can also be competitive for the victory. However, this ‘resurrection’ of Red Bull has not displaced McLaren’s old rivals, who among other things now want to bring Verstappen onto their side. In fact, both team principal Andrea Stella and reigning world champion Lando Norris, speaking to journalists at the end of the Austrian GP, ​​agreed that seeing a competitive Red Bull again is not a surprise, on the contrary. Updates and resources, it’s no surprise “It doesn’t surprise me that Red Bull is back in contention for the win, because if we consider the amount of developments they have made to the car here in Austria, it is no surprise that they have gained a few tenths of a second – observed Stella in the post-race – for our part we know that we are probably missing three or four tenths of a second and we see it both in qualifying and in the race. We tend to observe more or less the same trend on different circuits. So it’s a picture very consistent and we know exactly what we need to do right now.” Even Norris did not appear surprised to see Verstappen back on the podium at the Red Bull Ring: “They are still Red Bull, they are still an incredible team and it’s not that they were bad before – commented the reigning world champion – they are still able to achieve excellent performances and in Montreal they reached the podium, so it’s not that they had a poor car. It’s just that they struggled in some races. We’re waiting to see a few more races, but they did a good job, so hats off to them.”

Automobile Magazine – Formula1 English, News

2026-07-01 07:00:00