Red Bull boss Laurent Mekies has challenged Max Verstappen‘s claim that the team could be poised to end the 2025 Formula 1 season without winning another race.
Verstappen voiced that concern during a nightmare Hungarian Grand Prix weekend in which Red Bull showed minimal pace throughout and scored a mere two points.
Having described the RB21 as “undriveable” in practice, Verstappen was at a loss as Red Bull’s overnight changes delivered little improvement and he qualified eighth.
Verstappen made up ground in the opening laps with some bold moves into the chicane, but the decision to pit twice saw him end up one place lower than he started.
The Dutchman came home more than 70 seconds behind race winner Lando Norris, who headed team-mate Oscar Piastri as McLaren took a seventh 1-2 this season.
But while he has acknowledged that McLaren remains the benchmark, Mekies has stressed Red Bull’s competitiveness around the Hungaroring wasn’t representative.
Mekies, who replaced the axed Christian Horner at the helm last month, highlighted that Verstappen prevailed in the Sprint Race in Belgium just the previous weekend.
When Verstappen’s comment was put to him, Mekies told media including Motorsport Week: “It was a tough weekend.
“I don’t think what you see this weekend represents where the car is at.
“We accept the fact that we are probably not very strong on tracks like here, but what we have seen today was outstanding.
“So, if you look, no question McLaren are faster, but look at Spa, Max was able to fight certainly on Saturday and surprise everyone in the Sprint. So, let’s see.
“The season is still very long. Even if car development is going to heavily slow down or is pretty much going to be minimum from now on, we still have a lot of things we can learn, as this weekend showed.
“And through that, as difficult and as uncomfortable as it is, fundamentally you learn through these sorts of weekends. So better to have them early on.
“We will learn and if we are able to extract a bit more of the car, thanks to weekends like today, then hopefully we can put up a better fight.”
Red Bull not anticipating repeat struggle
Mekies concurred with Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko’s view that he doesn’t expect the struggles that hindered the team to be prevalent once the campaign resumes.
“I’m also quite confident that it’s a one-off,” he added. “It will not change the fact that we have a narrow window.
“But I think to be dramatically out of it like that, I’m also quite confident that with all the tests we’ve done this weekend, I’m quite confident that it will be a one-off.
“And to Helmut’s point, it is true that it was mainly a slow-speed and a mid-speed matter.
“Therefore, it points towards more tyre usage and the tyre being switched on more than our performance.”
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