With the new team boss Laurent Mekies at the helm, a different, calmer wind is blowing at Red Bull than under his predecessor Christian Horner. The rumors surrounding Max Verstappen are fading somewhat into the background. However, there is still a lot of work to be done.
“Make the car faster. Then we will automatically remove those considerations from Max.” Mekies sounded confident on Thursday in his first press conference as Horner’s successor. Despite reassuring words from Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff in the run-up, Verstappen’s possible departure was a theme. Mekies’ way of preventing it was as obvious as it was clear.
That press conference followed two turbulent weeks without Formula 1, but with a lot of news and non-news about the premier class. The dust clouds had to settle after Horner’s departure – which didn’t come completely out of the blue, but wasn’t expected now either.
After that, the internet amused itself with all kinds of cut-and-paste work about a possible meeting between Wolff and Verstappen in Sardinia. “I was just on vacation there,” Verstappen responded soberly.
Lessons learned in Silverstone
Although many things were business as usual within Red Bull, other lessons were also learned in Silverstone. Verstappen was surrounded by dozens of journalists at a table during his ten-minute international press moment. The team concluded that this could no longer continue.
On Thursday, there was a meeting with the press in Spa-Francorchamps in the style of a press conference, as they have been doing at Mercedes and Ferrari for years. That was still with fits and starts. Verstappen was still difficult to hear at his press moment on Thursday due to the hastily arrived wireless speaker. It completely failed on Sunday when Mekies gave the press his verdict on the race in Belgium. That still needs some attention.
Less in the foreground
In other areas, it also took some getting used to, a Red Bull without Horner. The Brit was always in the foreground. Mekies seems to be a different, calmer person in that regard. All the drivers who spoke about him in Spa are full of praise for the Frenchman.
As an engineer, Mekies can also talk in detail about the cars technically, as Verstappen confirmed. Something Horner was significantly less able to do. Verstappen clearly did not want to criticize the Brit and mainly called Mekies “a different team boss” than his British predecessor. Verstappen could not and did not want to answer many questions about the differences, which is perfectly logical given that Mekies has only been working for two weeks.
According to Verstappen, the atmosphere within the team is “very good”. And there are many people with ideas about how it can and should be better. Because to return to Mekies’ mission: the car still needs to be better.
Of course, Verstappen won the sprint race on Saturday, but he would never have succeeded if he hadn’t overtaken Oscar Piastri in the first lap. And of course, the Dutchman was unlucky on Sunday, when the race management was very careful to release the field onto the wet track. The Red Bull is simply lacking a lot compared to the McLaren. Verstappen himself is not at all concerned about that.
Weaknesses were still highlighted
On the contrary. Despite the arrival of a new floor in Silverstone and a new front wing in Spa, Verstappen was still dissatisfied. “I still can’t attack the corners as much as I would like,” he said on Saturday. “That’s not so easy to solve at the moment,” he added on Sunday after the race.
Because despite grumbling about the race management, it was also the usual weaknesses that prevented Verstappen from making a fist towards Leclerc on a dry track. “Those weaknesses were highlighted again,” he himself thought.
“We are still coming with some new things to Budapest next week; we are still working on it,” Red Bull top executive Helmut Marko reacted on Sunday after the race. “We’re not giving up, but it’s hard to solve.”
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‘We’re not giving up’
With an unwilling car and a colossal gap of 81 points to world leader Oscar Piastri, a tough second half of the season is threatening. Yet, according to world champion Verstappen, there is no reason to give up on the RB21 and put everything on next season.
“No, it is still important to learn certain things this year, because they also have an effect on next year. The cars will be completely different, but there are always things we can take with us.”
Verstappen himself is already working on next year’s Red Bull, as it should be about racing again within the team. In 2026, there will be new relationships again, answers to the question of who really has the best engine, and then the question of whether Verstappen will serve out his contract with Red Bull until 2028 will undoubtedly be a theme again. For now, it seems to have faded into the background again.