Laurent Mekies has reflected on the elements Red Bull used to keep pushing Max Verstappen forward in the 2025 Formula 1 title battle.
Mekies took on his role at the Milton Keynes-based team during a vital time in the Drivers’ Championship. After replacing Christian Horner in July of 2025, Mekies arrived around the time when Verstappen had over a 100-point deficit to the championship leader.
Much of the 2025 season was heavily dominated by McLaren. It looked to be a two-horse race between teammates Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris, but one can never count out Verstappen. After the F1 summer break, the Dutchman managed to storm ahead in order to minimise the gap to the McLarens.
In the end, Verstappen fell short of his fifth World Championship by two points. And the title of champion was taken by Norris. Despite the outcome, the incredible fight put up by Verstappen and the Red Bull team will not be easily forgotten.
13 Months into his role as Red Bull Team Principal, Mekies said to RACER: “The year has been a rollercoaster. I’m not going to lie, but it’s been above all an incredible privilege to be part of the team.
“Joining last year, if I remember the first few weeks, it feels a bit unreal right now. But trying to get to know our incredible people as quickly as we could, incredible people on the chassis side, incredible people on the PU side, and first there was this massive push to turn things around after a difficult start of the ’25 season.
“And I recall very well Pierre [Wache] and the team not wanting to give up, not accepting the lack of performance of last year’s car.”
Red Bull upgrades and ‘Max magic’ sparked a comeback
In a situation where many might have given up, both the Red Bull team and Verstappen refused to. Despite the points gap to Piastri looking nearly impossible to close, and the strong performance of the McLarens, Red Bull kept pushing.
The chances of winning the title looked slim at the time. But they kept bringing valuable upgrades to the RB21 rather than shifting focus to 2026.
“They would have had all the reason in the world to turn the page, with the ’26 regulations coming, the new engine coming, a new boss now. You would have had all the reason in the world to say, ‘You know what, this car is not working. We’ll sort it out next year.'” Mekies said.
“But nobody wanted to do that. And slowly but surely, they found a new sweet spot for the car, new developments for the car, new avenues. And together with some Max magic, it gave us the comeback.”
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