Red Bull team principal Laurent Mekies has defended his squad's decision to continue developing the RB21 challenger late into the season.
The decision has seen Red Bull surge back towards the front of the pecking order late in the season.
With three wins in the last five races, Verstappen is being considered an outside challenger for the championship in the fight against McLaren's Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri.
It has led to suggestions it could have a negative impact Red Bull's 2026 car, which is being built under a brand new set of technical regulations.
Mekies, however, has asserted this will not be the case.
“With regards to why we have kept developing this car, perhaps a little bit more than the competition, it has nothing to do with 2026,” he told media including RacingNews365.
Having struggled in the mid-part of the F1 campaign, Red Bull is using the development opportunity to streamline its operations ahead of the sport's new era in 2026.
”It was, I think, as we have commented on a few times, if we were turning the page at the point of the season where we were very unhappy about this car, not reaching the full potential, then you would go to 2026 with a lot of question marks in your head and with a lot of wishful thinking.
“We have preferred to say we invest a little bit more in this car, we tried to unlock what we felt had not worked and got a bit of performance out of it.
“It gives us a lot more confidence in tools, methodologies, and approaches going into 2026.
“That's the rationale behind it. Nothing to do with performance or whatsoever.”
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