Laurent Mekies has insisted that Red Bull will not settle for podium finishes after Max Verstappen reached the top three in three of the last four Grands Prix. Although the team has made significant progress during the opening half of the 2026 Formula 1 season, its objective remains a return to winning on merit.
The 2026 campaign risks becoming the first season in which the Max Verstappen-Red Bull partnership fails to secure a single victory. The four-time world champion has repeatedly pushed the Milton Keynes team to improve, and Laurent Mekies has made it clear that Red Bull shares his refusal to accept second-best.
Max Verstappen pushes Red Bull to recover
During the first half of the championship, Max Verstappen showed considerable frustration with the new generation of Formula 1 cars, describing them as “Formula E on steroids”. His attention subsequently shifted towards Red Bull’s performance problems after the team began the new technical cycle as the fourth-fastest force behind Mercedes, Ferrari and McLaren.
Max Verstappen has urged the team to react on several occasions, even when doing so has risked creating public tension, as happened at Silverstone. Red Bull listens closely to its leading driver, partly because he remains one of the organisation’s most valuable assets and partly because a single comment from him can immediately influence the Formula 1 driver market.
Sharing Max Verstappen’s winning mentality is therefore essential for the team. Laurent Mekies understands that Red Bull cannot regard three podiums from four races as a satisfactory end result, even though its recent form has demonstrated clear improvement. The team has already acknowledged that an RB22 weakness remains despite its run of podium challenges.
Laurent Mekies says Red Bull’s only objective is victory
“Our only objective is to win races,” Laurent Mekies said. “We are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until we once again have a car capable of winning on merit.”
The Red Bull team principal nevertheless praised the work completed at Milton Keynes after the team dramatically reduced its performance deficit during the opening half of the season.
“I have to take this opportunity to congratulate our team, the people working on the chassis and the power unit, because recovering from an initial deficit of 1.2 seconds to only three tenths by the middle of the season, with such a high level of competition, is a great achievement,” Laurent Mekies added.
“We know why we were behind, considering the comeback in 2025 and the difficulties surrounding the power unit, but our 2,000 people have worked to make an additional contribution in every single area, through the upgrades and also through the work taking place behind the scenes.”
Red Bull still fourth despite closing performance gap
Red Bull occupies fourth place in the Formula 1 Constructors’ Championship with 177 points. That total is less than half Mercedes’ tally and leaves the team 130 points behind Ferrari.
The standings reflect the difficulties experienced by the Milton Keynes operation during Formula 1’s new technical era. Red Bull began the season behind its three leading rivals, while the challenges associated with its new power unit programme added another layer of complexity to the RB22 project.
However, the team demonstrated during 2025 that it can respond effectively when its competitiveness falls below expectations. Max Verstappen played a central role in that recovery, relentlessly pressuring the organisation to identify weaknesses and accelerate development.
Red Bull now believes it understands why it began 2026 so far behind and has reduced its deficit to approximately three tenths of a second. For Laurent Mekies, however, closing the gap and collecting podiums will not be enough. The recovery will only be complete when Max Verstappen again has a car capable of fighting for victories through outright performance.
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