Red Bull boss sends 'too excited' warning after podium breakthrough

Red Bull team principal Laurent Mekies has insisted there is no reason for the team to get “too excited” by its performance at the Canadian Grand Prix.

Max Verstappen secured third place in Montreal last weekend, delivering Red Bull’s first podium finish of the season.

The Milton Keynes-based outfit endured a difficult start to the campaign but has shown clear signs of progress since introducing its latest upgrade package.

Mekies said the team’s performance in Canada provided encouraging validation that the upgrade package first introduced in Miami has moved Red Bull in the right direction.

“Big picture, I see at the very least we confirm the Miami steps,” Mekies told media including RacingNews365.

“We've done a bit more than the Miami step in the way that we have managed to take a little bit of performance away from the top guys.

“Just looking at the lap time now, it was three-tenths in qualifying, but [on Sunday] we were a bit closer than the half a second deficit that we had in Miami. 

“In Miami we finished 40 seconds from the win. It was a bit closer here now.

“There is probably no reason to get too excited in a way that you could also have a track layout effect, a track that could be forgiving for certain aspects of the car. 

“But at the very least, again, we confirm Miami, the guys managed to get something more.”

Red Bull’s strong showing in Montreal came despite both Mercedes and McLaren introducing substantial upgrade packages over the race weekend.

The team was able to remain competitive at the front of the field in the face of those developments, leaving Mekies encouraged by the potential of Red Bull’s own package and the progress being made with the RB22.

“If you consider that the competition had another flow of updates this weekend, it's just confirming that we are going in the right direction with the development,” he said.