Laurent Mekies details extraordinary Red Bull devotion to Max Verstappen F1 title tilt

Red Bull team principal Laurent Mekies has reflected on the tenacity of his team as it refused to abandon Max Verstappen's F1 drivers' championship push in 2025, even when the deficit stretched beyond 100 points.

Mekies, who replaced Christian Horner in July last year, reflected on a season in which Verstappen clawed back a 104-point deficit to championship leader Oscar Piastri, and 70 points to Lando Norris, after the Dutch Grand Prix, only to fall agonisingly short to the Briton by two points.

Verstappen won six of the final nine grands prix, a run ignited by the upgraded floor Red Bull introduced at Monza.

That package reworked the floor body, fences and edge to unlock a new setup direction, transforming the RB21 from an inconsistent challenger into a relentless race-winning machine. 

Technical director Pierre Waché described it at the time as opening avenues that could pave the way for more victories, and he was emphatically proven right.

Within weeks of Mekies' arrival at Milton Keynes, Red Bull's engineering team was pushing for solutions rather than pivoting entirely to the 2026 regulations.

It would have been the easy path, given the scale of the deficit and the seismic rule changes on the horizon, but the Frenchman maintains the mentality inside the factory simply would not allow it.

"The year has been a rollercoaster," Mekies said to RACER, 13 months into the role. "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 and the team not wanting to give up, not accepting the lack of performance of last year's car.

"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.'

"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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