Red Bull hit limit but send ominous warning to F1 rivals: 'Don't get me wrong'

Red Bull will introduce no further major upgrades to the RB22 this F1 season, team principal Laurent Mekies has confirmed, as the Milton Keynes outfit shifts its full development focus onto 2027.

Despite freezing further substantial updates to the current car, Mekies, whose contract Red Bull has recently extended until 2031, was adamant that the team's pursuit of performance will not slow down.

The Frenchman was clear that — having achieved the primary aim of winning a grand prix this season, courtesy of Max Verstappen in Sepang and Singapore — the team was focused on its target of taking all the lessons it can into next year.

"So there will be no other substantial upgrades to the car," Mekies told media, including RacingNews365.

"Now, don't get me wrong; it does not mean that we will not continue to push very hard to improve. Continue to push very hard to use every remaining race to learn for this year and to learn for next year.

"That's what we had said to each other: 'The first win is the target, but the other target is to take all the learning.

"So the development programme will not change. We have put our focus on '27. We think there is still a huge amount of learning in '26 that we could use in '27."

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Praise for Waché and Hodgkinson

Verstappen swept both pole position and victory in both races at the Singapore Grand Prix last weekend.

Mekies used the result to praise the technical departments behind the RB22's chassis and its Red Bull-Ford power unit, led respectively by Pierre Waché and Ben Hodgkinson.

However, he insists the team remains far from satisfied, a sentiment very much in step with the desire to keep learning across the remainder of the current campaign.

"I'd like to take the time to say a huge congrats to Pierre's [Waché] team, to Ben's [Hodgkinson] team, for the 360-degree work they have done in order to be in that position to fight for wins on different tracks," Mekies added.

"As I said, even on a weekend where you take two poles and two wins like [in Singapore], we are still very honest with each other about the fact that there were still a number of things we would like to see done better, even on a weekend like this.

"And that's the spirit of this team, and it's with that spirit that we will go on and reset and tackle the next races."