Does Racing Bulls in Barcelona have engine trouble or not? The Red Bull sister team covered nearly a thousand kilometres during the first two test days, but has reportedly suffered overheating with the brand‑new power unit. Rookie Arvid Lindblad, however, looks back satisfied on his first laps in the VCARB03: ‘We were able to run a lot without any noteworthy issues’.
While the Red Bull squad is skipping Thursday in Barcelona, sister team Racing Bulls continued running laps. The team had already been on track on Monday and Wednesday, but it wasn’t flawless. Lindblad came to a halt on his debut — reportedly the first mechanical stoppage for a car with a Red Bull Powertrains engine — and brought out a red flag. Still, he completed a total of 120 laps and afterwards said he was pleased with the DM01 power unit.
“It went really well,” Lindblad told F1. “I was very happy to be able to drive. The plan was to run on Tuesday, but that was postponed because of the rain, so I was really keen to get my first proper session in today. I enjoyed it.”
Power-unit problems?
“We were able to do a lot of running without any notable issues,” continues the only rookie on the 2026 grid. “My compliments to everyone at VCARB, Red Bull Powertrains and Ford for the support. That’s going very well. There are still a few things we need to work on, but overall it was a positive day and I’m satisfied with how it went.” According to Lindblad, the brand-new Red Bull power unit is not showing reliability problems.
Italian outlet Autoracer, however, claims there were indeed issues with Red Bull’s power unit. The Italian outlet says the engine suffered from excessive overheating. The team’s engineers are reportedly now working on cooling solutions for the power unit.
