First impression of new Red Bull F1 engine: “Not perfect yet, but fine”

The first serious test for Red Bull Ford Powertrains – following an earlier filming day for Racing Bulls at Imola – has gone largely according to plan. Liam Lawson caused a red flag at the start of the lunch break, but still completed 88 laps in his Racing Bulls.

Max Verstappen was not behind the wheel on Monday, but saw his team-mate Isack Hadjar lap the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya 107 times. With a 1m18.159s, the French driver was also fastest of the day, although lap times carry little significance at this stage of pre-season testing.

“It was pretty productive. Surprisingly we managed to do a lot more laps than expected. Everything went quite smoothly. We only had minor issues, so it’s quite impressive considering this was our first day with our own engine,” the Red Bull driver concluded after his first day in the RB22.

Ford Performance director Mark Rushbrook previously told Motorsport.com reporters that the final phase of the engine development mainly focussed on drivability. In that respect, Hadjar is cautiously optimistic after his first runs as well.

“Honestly, it was pretty decent for a first day. It doesn’t feel too far off from what I’m used to based on my first season. All the upshifts and downshifts were okay. There are still a few things to tweak, of course, but it has been solid.”

Lawson stoppage was “mainly precautionary”

Reliability of the DM01 – a tribute to Dietrich Mateschitz – is top priority for now, and in that respect both Red Bull outfits are satisfied. It also applies to Racing Bulls, despite Lawson causing the third red flag of the day.

Isack Hadjar, Red Bull

 “We did a good amount of laps today. Obviously, we learned a lot. We had a few little issues along the way, which were expected on day one. But I think we are in a decent place,” Lawson said. “And honestly, the only issues we really had were safety precautions, not any actual issues. On the power unit side, it's been very, very good so far. But again, it’s hard to know where we're at compared to everybody else. But definitely, we'll keep learning over the next few days.” Most teams have indicated that they’re focusing purely on reliability during the shakedown week, with more attention shifting towards performance runs during the two remaining weeks of winter testing in Bahrain.

Engine to be “fine-tuned” before Melbourne

Mattia Spini, Racing Bulls’ chief race engineer, is also largely positive about what he has seen from the in-house power unit. Read Also: Here's what happened on day one of F1’s secretive closed-door 2026 shakedown “The power unit is working fine. Again, it's not perfect, but we didn't expect it to be. We certainly need to work [on several aspects], but we are working really well together. At Red Bull Powertrains and also the engineers with us and in the factory, they are really open and honest. The relationship is really good between the two groups. Actually, we are almost the same team, but we started working really well and I'm sure we’ll keep working in that direction. We are going to fine-tune the power unit for the first race.” Regarding Lawson’s stoppage, Racing Bulls clarified that he stopped during a practice start at the beginning of the lunch break: “The moment on the grid was nothing important. It was just related to some safety settings that we put in the car just to not damage anything as a precaution. That’s what happened there. We just tuned the settings and in the afternoon it was perfectly fine.”

Liam Lawson, Racing Bulls

For the upcoming days, the objective of both Red Bull teams is clear: rack up the mileage. “We want to make sure that the car is reliable. Assessing the performance is not going to be the primary goal of this test. We are going to focus on performance more in Bahrain. But for sure, we want to have a first taste and first understanding of it for us to start working on. We want to build mileage and build confidence with the new car,” Spini concluded. In Barcelona, each team is allowed to run on three of the five shakedown days. With Red Bull and Racing Bulls both running on Monday – unlike McLaren and Ferrari – they each have two days of data gathering remaining. Read Also: Here's what happened on day one of F1’s secretive closed-door 2026 shakedown Why has Audi entered F1 as a works team? Jonathan Wheatley explains Complicated but "doable" - Drivers issue early verdict on the F1 2026 cars

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