Racing Bulls 2026 Preview: This season’s mid-field team to beat
- Chloe Buckley
- Feb 26
- 5 min read
Updated: Feb 27
As we count down to Formula One's 2026 season opener, our F1 writers preview each team's potential, expectations and goals ahead of the start of a new regulatory era for the sport. Not only is F1 entering a new era, but so are the ever evolving Racing Bulls. Can they continue their upward momentum with the addition of a new rookie and engine partnership?
2025 was a new high for RB following a lacklustre few seasons. The team fielded a new lineup with Liam Lawson (replacing Yuki Tsunoda after round two) and rookie Isack Hadjar who worked well together to break the top six in the World Constructors’ Championship, exactly doubling the amount of points they scored in 2024.
As the sport evolves, so does RB. The team is continuing to change the game with their young drivers and creative campaign. RB is already a one of a kind team, a talent incubator constantly fielding young and rookie drivers with the aim of creating future champions.
Off the grid, their socials are always a talking point. From drivers taking part in online trends, to their creator platform offering worldwide experiences to young creatives to immerse them in the world of F1. The team is always thinking of innovative ways to make the sport that bit more fun.
At the Red Bull and RB joint season launch in Detroit, RB dialled in on this in a pre-recorded video package before revealing their 2026 livery. The event was in partnership with Ford ahead of the new hybrid power units that both teams will be racing with, created by Ford Red Bull Powertrains. RB’s livery pays subtle homage to Ford with some dark blue accents along the all white chassis.
The team being led by Alan Permane is entering a new generation of F1 as a more structured team. So far, the car, drivers and overall performance is looking positive. The only way for RB to go is forward.
A fresh face in the driver lineup
Last year, Hadjar made his F1 debut after a successful stint in F2. Since he put in such an impressive performance last year, it was decided that he would move to sister team Red Bull this year, which has made way for another young driver to step up to the challenge at RB.
Filling the seat is a new face to the grid. Arvid Lindblad will make his F1 debut as the only rookie on the grid. Lindblad has had a quick rise through the ranks so far as the 18-year old has had a spectacular junior career.
Lindblad was signed to Red Bull as a young karting driver where he went on to win the Italian F4 Championship and moved up to F3.
He had a positive F2 campaign in 2025 securing multiple podiums along with some sprint and feature race wins. This helped him secure his promotion to his F1 RB seat.
Liam Lawson back for another season after rejoining the team in 2025. The driver from New Zealand returned to the team following the opening round in Australia in a driver switch made between him and Tsunoda. Throughout the year, Lawson had some decent results, and even achieved his best F1 finish yet with fifth place in Baku.
Both drivers have proven their skill on the track, with Lindblad having the opportunity to show more of what he can do outside of practice sessions. The pairing is a confident blend of both youth and experience. This could be one of RB’s most exciting and effective combinations yet.
What we learned from testing
The shakedown in Barcelona was the first outing for RB with the new Ford power unit. The team managed to complete a solid 319 laps at Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, ranking fifth for the amount of laps done out of the teams. Lindblad managed to complete 167 of these, placing seventh out of the drivers. Lawson came in at 10th with 152 laps. This was only a glimpse at the performance ahead of Bahrain testing.
Bahrain was smooth sailing for RB for the most part, despite a few minor issues. There were luckily no major problems the team had to deal with, which meant they could get some vital track time and useful data from the runs.
On the second day of testing, RB had done the second most laps out of the eleven teams, only being outdone by Mercedes. Lindblad did the most laps of any driver the same day with a total of 240 laps and ranked 13th fastest.
Of course, pre-season testing is only a small insight into how the car will perform over the year, but the time that both drivers managed to spend on the track is a great indicator of the car’s stability and reliability. Overall, Lindblad was 13th and Lawson 14th out of all the drivers in terms of fastest laps after the final test in Sakhir.
Team expectations for 2026
This exciting new era that F1 is entering could very well shake up the pecking order due to the cars being so different from before. For RB, they should remain firmly towards the front of the mid-field.
Going off of testing, the car looks promising with talented drivers in the cockpit. Although it proved a bit trickier to drive compared to the last, the amount of laps that were completed in pre-season tests is a great sign and shows that it is capable of the mileage. Despite being a small insight into what the car will be able to do during race weekends, it was reliable in its first outings other than an odd couple of stoppages.
The outcome of last year by the team has set the standards relatively high for 2026, but so far, there seems to be no reason why they shouldn’t match or improve on the result.
There are of course a few areas that RB could improve on when taking a look back to last season. Eliminating mistakes, crashes and stoppages is harder said than done, but it could be a key factor in stealing a few extra points. From what we’ve seen already, the car is capable of going the lengths.
As RB go into Melbourne with confidence, it is clear we could be in for a thrilling mid-field battle over the coming months. And if testing is anything to go by, RB are genuine contenders to set the benchmark in F1’s new era.
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