Red Bull: Max Verstappen praises Laurent Mekies and hints at changes after Christian Horner era. Max Verstappen believes Red Bull has taken significant steps forward since Zandvoort.

Max Verstappen hints at Christian Horner as Red Bull shows progress

This year, Italy seems to bring luck to Max Verstappen. After his victory at Imola, the four-time world champion had to wait until returning to the Bel Paese to claim his 66th Formula 1 Grand Prix win. At Monza, Verstappen drove a car significantly more competitive than those he had experienced in the recent past, and both he and the Red Bull team believe the triumph at the Italian circuit was heavily influenced by the low-downforce characteristics of the track, which suit the RB21 perfectly while posing difficulties for McLaren.

Even before Monza, Verstappen noted progress at Zandvoort, where he had closed the gap and created some challenges for the McLaren drivers, though the British team still held a noticeable advantage over the Milton Keynes car. The reigning world champion praised Laurent Mekies’ engineering approach and, in doing so, indirectly critiqued former team principal Chris Horner, whose repeated internal tensions ultimately led Red Bull to make a strategic leadership change after two decades.

Verstappen on Red Bull’s recent steps forward

Verstappen explained that the team’s development approach had previously involved testing numerous car configurations, sometimes making drastic changes that revealed the team lacked a clear understanding of the optimal setup. He emphasised that Laurent Mekies’ engineering background allows him to ask the right, common-sense questions to the engineers, which Verstappen believes has been highly effective.

“Up to now, we’ve competed in many races where we were simply trying different car configurations, making fairly drastic changes; these were things that showed we didn’t have full control and weren’t entirely sure what to do. Laurent, thanks to his engineering background, asks the right questions to the engineers, sensible questions, and I think this works very well,” Verstappen commented.

He added that the team now focuses on understanding which experiments provide useful indications for the next steps in development. Verstappen felt that significant progress had already been made at Zandvoort and that Monza represented an additional step forward, giving him even better feedback and a stronger overall feeling of performance from the car.

“Additionally, we try to understand that some of the things we test give an idea of the direction to take, and that’s what we’ve continued to work on. I definitely felt that at Zandvoort we took a step that seemed to work quite well, and then here at Monza we took another step that gave me even better sensations,” he added.