Red Bull boss Laurent Mekies has heaped praise on Max Verstappen, claiming that the four-time Formula 1 champion is the team’s “best sensor in the car”.
Mekies has showered the Dutchman with plenty of positives since he took over from Christian Horner in July, including leaving him speechless after an overtake at the Dutch Grand Prix.
Since then, Verstappen nearly completed one of the most incredible Drivers’ Championship turnarounds, losing the title to Lando Norris by just two points.
It was an effort that Verstappen lauded as the best season of his career, despite him falling short at the championship showdown in Abu Dhabi.
“As much as we have spent, all of us, too many years in Formula 1 and have seen Max getting unbelievable achievements, all I can tell you is that when you get the chance to work on his side of the paddock, you still get blown away,” Mekies told media including Motorsport Week.
“Obviously you guys hear a lot of what is said over the radio, but you don’t hear everything.
“So the quality of his technical feedback and the level of sensitivity that he has in the car [is very impressive].
“We used to have this joke inside the team where we’d just say that he’s the best sensor we have in the car. Arguably also the most expensive, but that’s another question!”
Mekies later added that Verstappen’s importance was most apparent during the team’s poor run in mid-2025, where the team needed to lean on his feedback.
“He does that with the capacity to fully immerse himself in the project, not to judge it from outside,” he added.
“But trying to find the right keys to make sure that we all push in the same direction, and to make sure that we all appreciate what he’s trying to tell us with the communications.”
Verstappen ‘is motorsport’
Verstappen famously took victory in his debut GT3 outing at the Nurburgring in September. Beyond that, fans often spot him racing on online simulators.
The Dutchman’s dedication to the sport knows no limits, something that mightily impresses his boss.
“The guy lives motorsport day and night, literally day and night. Probably more than any of us, he is motorsport in some respect,” Mekies continued.
“He’s not escaping from any meetings to go and do something else, but he’s completely merging it.
“Between the races he’s doing his sim racing, probably with somewhere in his mind the things that he can still learn or improve on his driving, or the preparations for the next race.
“If he has a free weekend, he goes racing somewhere else with GT3 cars. That’s something that looks completely unreal from our side, or as a matter of fact, is unreal.”
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