Red Bull’s recent revival in Formula One has caught the attention of fans and rivals alike, but team principal Laurent Mekies remains unusually modest about the transformation.
Mekies stepped into the team principal role in July and insists that he’s not responsible for Red Bull’s recent surge, despite Max Verstappen’s impressive results over the past few races.
Laurent Mekies Stays Humble Despite Impressive Results
Since taking over from Christian Horner, Mekies has been able to cause a noticeable turnaround for the team. Verstappen has stood on the podium in the last four races, including back-to-back wins in Monza and Baku and a second-place finish in Singapore. Despite these results, Mekies continues to downplay his role behind the team’s recent success.
“It’s still zero, guys. It’s still zero,” Mekies told reporters. “And I say it with the same seriousness that I told you after Monza. The improvement in performance is very basically due to the work of everyone trying to analyse the limitations of the car, race after race.”
He explained that the improvements are the result of a team-wide effort and not just his own.
“What is stopping us from exploiting the potential of the car? How can we add performance to the car? Where do we need to add performance for it to convert into lap time?” Mekies added about the questions the team raises to improve their car’s performance.
He also credited Verstappen for constantly providing major feedback about the car and helping improve it, “with extremely strong and clear inputs from Max, that work is paying off, which is good news. Because as a group, it just confirms that we have the best people that we can dream of. And we will continue working, we are not stopping there.”
However, Verstappen sees things a little differently: “I think Laurent is probably being too nice in that sense.”
“But at the end of the day, what is very good is that we just approach it as a proper team effort. We always tried to look into the details. We tried to understand what our weaknesses were. And since a few races, it’s definitely picked up a lot…And, yeah, by asking the right questions, including Laurent being involved in that, it’s just working well,” he added.
Max Verstappen’s Comeback and the Title Race
The turnaround has allowed Verstappen to narrow the gap to championship leader Oscar Piastri. After the Dutch Grand Prix, Verstappen trailed Piastri by 104 points, but after Singapore, the gap has shrunk to 63 points. While McLaren secured the constructors’ championship in Singapore, Verstappen remains a serious contender for the drivers’ title with six races still to go.
Verstappen mentioned that Red Bull is back in contention thanks to a better understanding of the car than before. “Maybe now it was not as good as last race weekend but sometimes you come out of a race just a bit lost, not really understanding why or how. I do think that now we understand why or how we can be better,” he admitted.
Red Bull’s recent resurgence proves that sometimes a change in leadership does help with teamwork and better performances in the world of Formula One, even though Mekies would never agree to it.