Red Bull plan to 'regroup' after being left 'nowhere to hide' at Zandvoort

Laurent Mekies is targeting a "regroup" at Red Bull after its disappointing showing at the Dutch Grand Prix, conceding the Milton Keynes-based outfit took a "step back" over the F1 summer break.

Aside from Max Verstappen's scary first lap shunt at Zandvoort, the six-time constructors' champion endured an otherwise underwhelming weekend, save for the bright spot of Liam Lawson, who produced a strong display whilst deputising for the injured Isack Hadjar.

The four-time F1 drivers' champion could only manage sixth in the sprint before qualifying seventh for the full-distance race, which was cut short after his aforementioned crash, which Mekies was relieved to see him walk away from.

"Difficult weekend in Zandvoort," the Red Bull team principal said after the 72-lap contest.

"First of all, the most important thing is that Max is okay. It was a pretty big shunt, and we are all glad to see that he's out of the car, unharmed, and that's what matters the most."

Assessing the underlying pace of the RB22, Mekies admitted that the team had "nowhere to hide" over its lacklustre showing.

He was, however, quick to point out that Red Bull was denied the opportunity to see Verstappen in full race trim on Sunday, which was also something that prevented Lawson from having a true benchmark to be measured against.

Before the paddock heads to the Italian Grand Prix, Mekies wants to see his team come up with some answers to explain the situation in North Holland.

"Performance-wise, there is nowhere to hide. It was a very difficult weekend," the Frenchman added. "It seems like we have made a bit of a step back compared to where we were before the summer break.

"Of course, we'll never know what the real pace of the car in the race would have been with Max, but it's fair to say that session after session, it looked more difficult than it was in Budapest or in Spa or in Austria, so some tough work for us to do to regroup and to see if it is simply the competition that has done a better job than us at upgrading the car, or if something has been limiting us more than it should have been in Zandvoort.

"So that will be for us the next two weeks before we fight back in Monza all together."