Mekies remains humble despite Red Bull’s resurgence
SINGAPORE – Red Bull boss Laurent Mekies insists on not taking credit for the team’s remarkable improvement under his leadership, something Max Verstappen considers Mekies to be “too kind” about. Since Mekies took office in July, Red Bull’s performance has taken a radical turn. Verstappen achieved a podium finish at the Dutch Grand Prix after the summer break, followed by consecutive victories in Monza and Baku, and secured second position at Sunday’s Singapore Grand Prix. After Verstappen’s victory in Monza in September, Mekies deflected questions about his impact since taking office. Three races later, his opinion hasn’t changed.“It’s still zero, guys. It’s still zero,” he told reporters on Sunday night when asked if he would reconsider how much credit he can take now. “And I say that with the same seriousness as I told you after Monza.
Laurent Mekies
Max Verstappen (left) next to Red Bull boss, Laurent Mekies (right).
“The improvement in performance is basically due to everyone’s work trying to analyze the car’s limitations, race after race. What prevents us from exploiting the car’s potential? How can we add performance to the car? Where do we need to add performance so that it translates into lap time?” “And that work, again, with extremely strong and clear contributions from Max, that work is bearing fruit, which is good news. Because as a group, it simply confirms that we have the best people we could dream of. And we will continue working, we will not stop there.” “We’ll take it race by race and try to see if there’s more to come.” The shift has led McLaren to label Verstappen as a real threat to Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris in the race for the drivers’ title: the current champion is 63 points behind the leader with six races to go. Verstappen has already praised Mekies for the work he has done since leaving his former position as head of the junior Red Bull team, Racing Bulls. Mekies comes from an engineering background, and Verstappen said after the Italian Grand Prix that he had injected a more sensible approach to how they set up the car. “I think Laurent is probably too nice in that sense,” Verstappen said on Sunday night when he was told about Mekies’ comments. “But at the end of the day, what’s very good is that we just approach it as a proper team effort. We always try to analyze the details. We try to understand what our weaknesses were. And for a few races now, it has definitely improved a lot.” “Maybe it wasn’t as good as last race weekend, but sometimes you come out of a race a bit lost, not really understanding why or how. I think we understand now why or how we can be better.” “And, yes, by asking the right questions, including Laurent’s involvement in that, it’s just working well.”
