Verstappen urged to stay patient at Red Bull as Mercedes brace for grid penalties

Gerhard Berger has urged Max Verstappen to stay patient at Red Bull, insisting the team will be competitive again within a year despite a rocky start to 2026. Meanwhile, Mercedes is bracing for grid penalties, with reliability woes making extra power unit changes almost unavoidable for both George Russell and Kimi Antonelli.

Why it matters:

Red Bull's first season with an in-house power unit was always going to be difficult, and Berger's backing suggests the project is on firmer ground than the results imply. For Mercedes, the timing is painful; the Silver Arrows hold a 72-point lead in the Constructors' standings, yet both drivers are burning through components faster than planned, threatening grid drops at the worst possible time.

The details:

• Berger praised Red Bull's new engine as "quite impressive" for competing with Mercedes and Ferrari in year one.
• Verstappen recently labelled the "Macarena" rear wing "super dangerous" after crashes in Austria and Britain.
• Mercedes deputy principal Bradley Lord confirmed Antonelli is already on his fourth set of components, while Russell used his final permitted change after a water leak in Hungary qualifying.
• With half the season remaining, Lord admitted penalties are "almost inevitable," leaving Brixworth strategists to calculate the least damaging schedule.

What's next:

Red Bull needs to fix its reliability issues quickly to keep Verstappen in contention and prove Berger's optimism justified. Mercedes faces a delicate balancing act, timing component changes to protect Antonelli's 219-point Drivers' championship lead and Russell's podium-filled campaign without surrendering ground to rivals.