Red Bull disclose further details of successful Max Verstappen negotiations

Red Bull's recent run of upgrades was not a decisive factor in convincing Max Verstappen to extend his contract until 2030, Laurent Mekies has revealed.

Instead, the Red Bull team principal has insisted the team's long-term development direction mattered far more than any single update during negotiations.

Verstappen committed his future to Red Bull in August, ending months of speculation that had included interest from McLaren after Mercedes' pursuit of the four-time F1 drivers' champion cooled.

The Dutchman had even entertained the possibility of walking away from Formula 1 altogether before signing fresh terms with the Milton Keynes-based squad, and suggested he was closer to retirement than joining a rival team.

Those talks took place against a backdrop of a difficult start to the RB22's campaign, with Red Bull well off the pace in the opening rounds before incrementally closing the gap.

That progress culminated in Verstappen fighting for victory on merit at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, where he finished just two tenths of a second behind winner George Russell, before taking a maiden win of the campaign at the following round at the Sepang International Circuit.

Asked whether Red Bull knew its recent upgrades would deliver the gains they have, and whether that influenced the negotiations with Verstappen, Mekies told media, including RacingNews365: "The short answer is no.

"We were not waiting for a magic upgrade that was supposed to come and bring us to the performance."

Mekies reveals true nature of Verstappen negotiations

Speaking after Verstappen and Red Bull triumphed at the Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia, Mekies explained that the Baku upgrade, since followed by a revised floor board geometry for Sepang, was always understood internally as the final piece of that development cycle rather than a surprise breakthrough.

"We knew we had upgrades," the Frenchman continued. "We actually knew that Baku would be the last one. It was continuing the trend of the development of the car.

"Actually, at the time [of the discussions with Verstappen], we felt we would probably struggle to close those final three tenths. So it was certainly not an argument of negotiation or convincing at the time of the discussions."

Instead, Mekies said the conversations with Verstappen centred on the broader trajectory of Red Bull's chassis and power unit departments, the latter still in its early stages as a Ford-backed in-house project.

"But I think more globally, we more so knew the dynamic was very, very strong in Pierre's [Pierre Wache, technical director] team and in Ben's [Ben Hodgkinson, technical director of Red Bull Powertrains] teams, in terms of what we felt was still the potential of the car package, chassis side and power unit side," Mekies added.

"And yes, those were the sort of discussions we had with Max; not about the Baku package or any other package, but about the underlying work happening in Pierre's team and in Ben's team, and where we felt there were lap time opportunities and long-term opportunities, but nothing specific to the Baku package."