Max Verstappen 'drops knowing clue' over key Red Bull unknown

Max Verstappen "looks quietly confident" over the potential of Red Bull's in-house engine and has dropped a little clue about its true performance, according to Bernie Collins.

For 2026, Red Bull is using its own in-house power unit for the first time, with the RBPT-Ford design clocking up 622 laps in Barcelona across both Red Bull and Racing Bulls.

The engine, also used by Racing Bulls in a pre-Barcelona shakedown at Imola, ran reliably with no failures in Spain, with the only concern for Red Bull being Isack Hadjar's Day 2 crash.

The RBPT engine was expected to be off the pace of Ferrari and Mercedes, especially, with former boss Christian Horner remarking last year that they both had "70 years" of experience in designing racing engines.

Reflecting on Verstappen's quiet confidence post-shakedown, former F1 strategist-turned-pundit Collins believes Verstappen's body language spoke more than he did. 

"There was a lot of noise in the paddock last year that this engine was really going to struggle," Collins explained on the Sky Sports F1 podcast.

"It wasn't going to be as good as the others, and I guess the story was maybe different internally at Red Bull, but we are starting to see that confidence come out a little bit.

"Max is sounding very relaxed, and I think you can tell by their posture, he's not just saying the words, he is looking very relaxed.

"He does say that the car has room for improvement, that's what happens in the first test of any season, but he does look quietly confident.

"He's got that little smile he sometimes carries when he is in these interviews, that he knows much more than we do."