Red Bull boss Laurent Mekies has rebuffed claims made by his world champion driver Max Verstappen that the team will fail to win again in the 2025 Formula 1 season.
Verstappen said on Saturday that “the way things are going right now”, Red Bull will not add to the two grand prix victories it has this year after qualifying a disappointing eighth in Hungary.
He eventually finished the Hungarian Grand Prix in ninth with team-mate Yuki Tsunoda 17th, keeping Red Bull fourth in the championship, while McLaren once again dominated scoring its seventh 1-2 of 2025.
But Mekies, for whom Hungary was just his second round as Red Bull boss, believes the Hungaroring was just an outlier as the week before Verstappen won the Belgian Grand Prix sprint.
“It was a tough weekend,” said Mekies, when Verstappen’s comment was put to him. “I don’t think what you see this weekend represents where the car is at.
“We accept the fact that we are probably not very strong on tracks like here, but what we have seen today was outstanding.
Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing, Yuki Tsunoda, Red Bull Racing
Photo by: Guido De Bortoli / LAT Images via Getty Images
“So, if you look, no question McLaren are faster, but look at Spa, Max was able to fight certainly on Saturday and surprise everyone in the sprint. So, let’s see.
“The season is still very long. Even if car development is going to heavily slow down or is pretty much going to be minimum from now on, we still have a lot of things we can learn, as this weekend showed.
“And through that, as difficult and as uncomfortable as it is, fundamentally you learn through these sorts of weekends. So better to have them early on.
“We will learn and if we are able to extract a bit more of the car, thanks to weekends like today, then hopefully we can put up a better fight.”
The entire Budapest weekend was a struggle for Red Bull, which didn’t even finish a practice session above ninth – leading Verstappen to claim that “nothing works” on the RB21.
But Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko also thinks the issues were specific to the Hungary weekend, adding “I don’t think it will happen again” – a sentiment Mekies doubled down on, as high-speed circuits are the team’s strength.
“I’m also quite confident that it’s a one-off,” Mekies added. “It will not change the fact that we have a narrow window.
Laurent Mekies, Red Bull Racing Team Principal
Photo by: Red Bull Content Pool
“But I think to be dramatically out of it like that, I’m also quite confident that with all the tests we’ve done this weekend, including into the race, I’m quite confident also that it will be a one-off.
“And to Helmut’s point, it is true that it was mainly a slow-speed and a mid-speed matter.
“Therefore, it points towards more tyre usage and the tyre being switched on more than our performance.”
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