Red Bull boss addresses shock Max Verstappen F1 title bid

Red Bull team principal Laurent Mekies has downplayed a potential title push for Max Verstappen following his victory in the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.

The four-time F1 champion produced a dominant drive to take his sixth career grand slam, having led every lap from pole position and securing the fastest lap of the race.

Verstappen's positive day contrasted greatly with that of McLaren. Championship leader Oscar Piastri crashed out on the opening lap, while Lando Norris could not progress further than seventh.

Verstappen now sits 69 points behind Piastri with seven races, three sprints, and a total of 199 points remaining.

Red Bull is also pushing to climb to second place in the constructors' standings amid a tight battle with rivals Mercedes and Ferrari.

But Mekies insisted the Milton Keynes-based squad is not placing focus on the gaps in the championship.

"I tell you how we look at it - we really take it race by race, so we don't look at the championship positions,” he told the media, including RacingNews365.

“We don't even look at it from a constructors’ perspective.

"Yes, it's nice to look at the battle for second place in the constructors’, but we take it step by step in terms of understanding of the car, in terms of unlocking lap time of the car."

Red Bull taking 'high-risk approach'

A championship triumph for Verstappen would mark one of the most astonishing turnarounds in the sport's history, with his gap to the leader sitting as high as 104 points earlier this year.

Mekies highlighted the team's primary focus is on applying its learnings to the next round in Singapore in a bid to outpace its rivals once more.

"We got some good answers in Monza, of course,” he said. “We got some good answers here [in Baku]. We are equally conscious that these are two very, very specific tracks.

“The way we look at the next race is not by looking at the gap to whoever. Singapore is going to be a different challenge.

“How do we tackle it? How do we apply learnings to that? How much of that we think can be tested there and how much risk do you want to take?

“At the moment, we try to have a high-risk approach to try to learn as much as we can before the end of the season and [see if] that prevails in championship discussions.”