Red Bull team principal Laurent Mekies has outlined the team's next priority after it finally won its first race of the year.
Max Verstappen took to the top step of the podium on Sunday in Bahrain, one day after he bagged the team's maiden pole position of 2026.
Red Bull has appeared much more competitive in recent weeks, and came agonisingly close to victory in Baku, where George Russell prevailed by a very slim margin.
It took until round 16 of the campaign for the Milton Keynes-based squad to finally get its hands on a winner's trophy, a feat that it was targeting for some time.
"Getting our first win was on top of the list, we said it quite a few times," Mekies told media including RacingNews365.
"It felt very, very far away, but that was really on top of the list."
Now, Mekies insisted the team will continue to push and even "take risks" to unlock more performance.
"What was second in the list, if you allow me to call it like that, was to use the next races to maximise the learnings.
"We will continue to experiment, we will continue to take some risks to maximise that learning."
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Mekies wary over Red Bull pace drop-off
Next up on the F1 schedule is Singapore, a track that Red Bull anticipated would suit its car over Bahrain.
While Mekies is hopeful that Red Bull will keep up its strong form, the Frenchman noted that other McLaren and Ferrari have also enjoyed spells of pressuring Mercedes before slipping back in the order.
"What does it mean in terms of picking order for the next races? I think we will be in the fight for the podium for the coming races.
"Fundamentally, we have been in the fight for the podium for a number of races now. Will we be in the fight for the win?
"Mercedes has always been in the fight for the win, pretty much. We have seen that it's been very difficult to consistently be with Mercedes at all the races.
"We have seen good periods for McLaren, we have seen good periods for Ferrari, so we are concentrating on ourselves, trying to extract a bit more of the car.
"Will that be enough to be on every track fighting for the win, like in the last two races? Impossible to say.
"But the priority will be to maximise the learning with the package we have."
Also interesting:
Join RacingNews365's Ian Parkes, Sam Coop and Nick Golding as they look back on the Bahrain GP in Malaysia, but also look ahead to this weekend's race in Singapore. The confusing and shocking start is a major talking point as is Red Bull's rise.
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