When Max Verstappen walked into the Red Bull hospitality on Friday for his Dutch Formula 1 media session – which in Azerbaijan, incidentally, consisted of just two Dutch journalists – the message was clear. The Baku City Circuit offered Red Bull its best opportunity to win a race this year, but Verstappen added: "We’ve done a great job messing it up."

A day later, he still came remarkably close to victory. Admittedly, he felt the gap of just 0.196 seconds at the finish line was somewhat misleading due to Valtteri Bottas' crash and George Russell's boost issue, but Red Bull's race pace was undeniably good – particularly on the softs. That was not only down to the impressive top speed on the longest straight of the F1 calendar, but also to the upgrades Red Bull introduced in Baku.

It was the final significant package for the RB22 and, according to both drivers, the upgrade – which included a new floor and revised sidepods – delivered what had been hoped for. "Baku is a very specific track, with specific tarmac, but the way the car was behaving in terms of through-corner balance this weekend, from lap one in FP1, I was like, 'Okay, this is looking pretty good'," Isack Hadjar said. Verstappen shared that view and felt the confidence to attack the corners that is so important at a track like Baku.

By the problems costing 'free' lap time, Verstappen is referring to the 'car degradation' issues and the deployment on the electrical side of the power unit, which is not optimal compared with Mercedes. Despite the upgrades from the technical team led by Pierre Wache working well, Verstappen maintains that the Baku race weekend was Red Bull’s best chance of victory in 2026. That is not only because of the layout, but also because Mercedes will have its long-awaited upgrade package for the W17 in Malaysia – with an ADUO upgrade for the power unit in the pipeline as well.