A star of the Red Bull F1 team has raised concerns regarding the 2026 starting procedure after it had a detrimental effect on their result at the Barcelona Grand Prix last time out.

On Sunday, the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya hosted the seventh round of the F1 2026 championship, which is currently led by Kimi Antonelli.

The Italian teenager’s Mercedes team are also way out in front in the constructors’ standings, with one of the biggest changes of the new regulations era being that Red Bull have begun to fall away from their status as a top team.

The energy drink giants are still within the top four constructors’ but are 52 points behind third-place McLaren after neither Max Verstappen nor Isack Hadjar managed to finish on the podium in Catalonia.

The RB22 has shown promise at certain stages throughout the opening rounds of the year, with Verstappen claiming P3 in Canada and Hadjar earning P3 in Monaco before a controversial decision from the FIA handed that position back to Alpine’s Pierre Gasly.

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Hadjar calls for urgent Red Bull solution

Since being promoted from Red Bull’s junior Racing Bulls team, Hadjar has done a considerably better job at closing the gap to Verstappen than any of the four-time champion’s other recent team-mates.

But one thing was clear in Barcelona – Red Bull’s starting procedure isn’t making life as the Dutchman’s team-mate any easier for Hadjar.

“It’s just the whole weekend has been like this for me,” Hadjar told media including GPFans after finishing P6 (the same grid slot he started the race in) at the Barcelona Grand Prix.

“Out of the six practice starts we had the whole weekend, it was the worst,” the 21-year-old continued, noting that Red Bull’s starting procedure severely hampered him straight off the line on Sunday when he dropped a whopping seven places on the opening lap and tumbled down to P13.

“It had to happen on the grid. I stalled twice, which I never did the whole season,” he continued.

“We need to fix these issues, because the procedure is way too complicated. I’m not a computer, I’m not a machine, I can’t be 0.0001 per cent precise. It’s not working.”

Hadjar was able to fight back through the pack but after emerging in front of the midfield, he found himself unable to fight with the frontrunners, exposing Red Bull as being nowhere near the most competitive cars.

“If you’re starting at the back, like me, you clear the midfield cars quite easily, and then the top cars are nowhere near you,” Hadjar noted.

“So then it’s a boring race. But to be fair, we did better than I expected for a track like that with these conditions.

Hadjar then looked to the next round in Austria where he hopes to improve, stating: “I think Red Bull Ring we’re hoping for a better weekend.”

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Former Ferrari F1 driver Carlos Sainz, who was replaced by Lewis Hamilton at the team, has suggested that the seven-time world champion has been ‘lucky’ with the timing of the regulation changes in the sport.

Hamilton claimed victory at the Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix last weekend in what was his first grand prix victory as a Ferrari driver.

The 41-year-old replaced Sainz at Ferrari ahead of the 2025 season, and had high levels to live up to after Sainz had claimed two grand prix wins in 2024.

But Hamilton really struggled in his first season, not picking up a single grand prix podium and finishing 86 points behind team-mate Charles Leclerc in the drivers’ championship.

In 2026, however, Hamilton has been rejuvenated, picking up three grand prix podiums before claiming his first Ferrari grand prix win last weekend at the Barcelona GP.

He is only 41 points behind championship leader Kimi Antonelli, as he hunts an unprecedented eighth world championship victory.

Now, Sainz has revealed just what has sparked this turnaround in form from his rival and successor at Ferrari.

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Hamilton saved by 2026 regulation changes

The 2026 regulation changes offered Hamilton the chance to ditch the previous generation of cars in which he had only won two grands prix across four seasons.

Since then, he’s been reinvigorated. Sainz believes that this is vital for career success, being able to work on a new car design so that it can be adapted to your own driving style and skill level.

“That’s what defines your career,” Sainz explained to media after the Barcelona GP. “You go to a team with a car you don’t like and spend three years there without adapting. Or without the car adapting to you. You feel like you’re missing a car, don’t you?

“But then you go to a team with a car you like and you feel like a god. It’s a much more complicated sport, and Lewis [Hamilton] deserves credit for turning it around,” he acknowledged.

Later, Sainz said: “The change in regulations was his luck. If he continues with last year’s car, we won’t see this Hamilton.”

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Four-time F1 champion Max Verstappen has indicated that he won’t be able to make any further appearances in the Nurburgring Langstrecken-Serie in 2026.

The Red Bull star has swapped his Red Bull F1 car for GT3 machinery on three occasions so far this year, winning the NLS2 race before his team were disqualified for exceeding the maximum tyre allowance.

And the heartbreak didn’t stop there. When the Dutchman and his Verstappen Racing team-mates took to the iconic German track for the Nurburgring 24 Hours last month, they had to watch a race win slip away from them after being struck down by a technical issue in the final hours.

If any Verstappen fans are wondering when they will finally get to see him tackle the Green Hell again, he has finally provided an update to GPFans.

Over the past few months, he has showcased his skills at the iconic Nurburgring with his very own GT3 team. In March he competed in NLS2 and then in April at NLS5, all in preparation for his participation in the legendary 24 Hours of the Nurburgring held last May. Although Verstappen clearly relished the German circuit’s challenges, no new chapter is on the horizon for him at this famed track.

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Verstappen unlikely to make Nurburgring 2026 return

His only remaining opportunity to race at the Nurburgring comes with the NLS7 event, the KW 6h ADAC Ruhr-Pokal-Rennen scheduled for August 1. However, this is the sole event that doesn’t conflict with the F1 calendar, and even then, Verstappen is not considering it.

“Unfortunately, it coincides with the GT World Challenge, so it simply isn’t happening,” he explained when asked by GPFans in the Barcelona Grand Prix paddock.

During that weekend, his team – Verstappen Racing – will be competing in the GT World Challenge Europe Sprint Cup. As a result, regular drivers Dani Juncadella and Lucas Auer won’t be available to team up, cementing the clash in schedules.

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