Team principal Laurent Mequise says Red Bull’s decision to continue developing its current car to understand its weaknesses will benefit it in 2026 rather than hurt its future chances.
The RB21 received further updates at the Mexico City Grand Prix, as Red Bull continues to battle for second place in the constructors’ championship and Max Verstappen begins a late charge in the drivers’ standings. Teams have to consider cost ceilings, and while many teams switched their focus completely to the 2026 car some time ago, Mekies says continuing to work on the current car will benefit Red Bull in the future.
“The reason why we’ve continued to develop this car a little bit more than our competitors has nothing to do with ’26,” Mekies said. “As I’ve commented several times, if you turn the page at a point in the season when you’re very frustrated that this car hasn’t reached its full potential, you’re going to go into 2026 with a lot of question marks in your head and some wishful thinking.
“So we chose to invest a little bit more into this car. We tried to free up things that we felt weren’t working and we were able to get a little bit of performance out of it. This gave us even more confidence in the tools, methodology and approach for 2026. Yes, there is a cost in terms of the amount of time and energy we have left over to do that, but that’s the rationale behind it. It has nothing to do with performance.”
“We’re doing this because we think it’s a net benefit for us to leave others alone. We’re validating our approach, and if we thought it would be compromised in 2026 (which would help), we wouldn’t do it. We know there’s a price to pay. We think it’s reasonable and worth it.”
Verstappen came within 36 points of the championship lead at the Mexico City Grand Prix, with a comfortable victory over McLaren’s Lando Norris, and Mekies said the title picture would have no impact on how Red Bull proceed each race weekend.
“We’re not going to change our approach. We weren’t thinking about the championship five races ago. We weren’t thinking about the championship before Austin and we weren’t thinking about the championship after Austin. What we’re looking at is, yeah, we don’t feel (Mexico) is 100 percent good in terms of car performance.”
“That’s the focus now…The focus will be on what I do when I get back here and what I can learn for Brazil.”
“Then the championship position is a result. For us, it doesn’t make any difference whether it’s near or far. We want to go home knowing that as a team we always gave our all and got absolutely everything. And that everything is in place enough to fight for the win. That wasn’t the case[in Mexico]so that’s where the focus will be.”
