Red Bull arrives at its home race this weekend with the upgrade it has been promising for months — and a team principal determined to manage expectations before a wheel has turned. The Austrian Grand Prix marks Red Bull's turn in 2026's relentless development war, the season in which every major parts package has reshuffled the order. Ferrari's Barcelona upgrade dropped Lewis Hamilton onto the top step. Now it is Red Bull's move at the Red Bull Ring.
Laurent Mekies, who took over as team principal earlier this year, framed the season as a sequence of momentum swings dictated by whoever upgrades next. "The picture of the season is these performance variations based on who is bringing his upgrade," Mekies told Motorsport.com. "Ferrari made a big step forward. Obviously, our next big one is in Austria. But, you know, it's only as good as the real lap time on track it brings. Everyone in Milton Keynes has been working very hard for that package."
This is Red Bull's second big swing of the year, following a Miami package that redesigned the RB22's sidepods and added a rotary rear wing concept that Ferrari boss Fred Vasseur memorably nicknamed the "Macarena." Mekies, though, was quick to dampen any talk of a sudden leap back to the front.
"There is no doubt that the Austrian package alone will not be enough," he said. "We know we'll have some further steps needed. But what is important is that on that continuous closing-the-gap trajectory that we have been onto since post-Japan, is that we continue to get closer, that we don't talk anymore about four tenths, but hopefully about less."
That four tenths of a second is Mekies' own estimate of the deficit Red Bull still carries to Mercedes and Ferrari, having already halved the original gap with the Miami update. A chunk of the Austrian gains is expected to come from weight: Red Bull is understood to still be over the 768kg minimum, and technical director Pierre Wache had earmarked this race as the moment to finally hit the limit. Asked in Barcelona whether that plan was on track, Mekies deflected with a grin. "Eat less," he joked. "That's my plan for Austria! And hopefully we get lighter there. Austrian food is good, I know. But the plan is to get the car to eat a little bit less there and to get on a bit of a diet."
Red Bull will not be upgrading alone. Ferrari, buoyed by its Barcelona breakthrough, is pressing on hard. According to RacingNews365's Paolo Filisetti, the Scuderia — led by engine chief Enrico Gualtieri — has "an aggressive plan of attack ready behind the scenes," an evolution strategy aimed at wiping out its power deficit. Mercedes, meanwhile, brings a different priority to Spielberg: stopping the battery failures that have cost Russell and Antonelli dearly in recent weeks.
The backdrop is a tight title fight, with Antonelli leading and Hamilton freshly motivated by his first Ferrari win. For Max Verstappen, a home race is always charged, and a competitive upgrade would let him fight nearer the front in front of the orange grandstands. But Mekies' message is clear: Austria is a step on a longer road, not the finish line. The lap times on Saturday and Sunday will say whether Red Bull's trajectory is bending the right way.
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*Originally published on [Formula News One](https://newsformula.one/article/red-bull-bring-austria-upgrade-but-mekies-warns-not-enough). Visit for full coverage.*