Vasseur doubts Red Bull has stopped 2026 development

Frederic Vasseur is sceptical of Red Bull’s claim that its Baku package was effectively the final major upgrade of 2026, as Formula 1 teams increasingly shift resources towards next year’s cars.

Laurent Mekies said in Baku that Red Bull has moved "a very large majority" of its development resources onto 2027.

"It’s most probably our last significant package," the Red Bull boss added.

Vasseur was not convinced.

"First of all, don’t believe what Red Bull says about them not bringing updates," said the Ferrari boss.

"If you stop working on the car at the beginning of September, you’ll continue to bring updates because you have production time. Sometimes you can say you’ve stopped working on the current car while you’re still producing updates, because production takes a long time."

Ferrari itself intends to keep bringing parts.

"We’ll bring new things and we’ll keep pushing until the last corner of the last race," said the Frenchman.

Charles Leclerc believes that is necessary after seeing rivals move ahead.

"McLaren and Red Bull have simply taken a step forward with the upgrades they have introduced," said the Monegasque.

McLaren boss Andrea Stella says the Woking based team’s own remaining 2026 parts were already released into production, while "all the efforts are already concentrated onto next year’s car."

Cadillac, Williams and Aston Martin have taken similar positions, with the majority of their resources now focused on 2027.