Race Report

Mekies to Verstappen's critics: Wait for Miami

By Kavi Khandelwal

Red Bull's Laurent Mekies addressed Verstappen's future, Lambiase's exit, and a difficult start to 2026 — his answer to all of it? Build a better car.

The 2026 season has not been kind to Red Bull so far. Twelve points from three races. A car their own drivers have called undrivable. Key figures heading for the exit. And their star driver — the one who has won them four world championships — making no secret of how miserable the whole experience has been. So when Laurent Mekies sat down with the media this past week, the questions were always going to go beyond the upgrade package bound for Miami. The Red Bull team principal didn't dodge any of it. On Verstappen's public criticism of the regulations, on Gianpiero Lambiase's confirmation that he'll eventually leave for McLaren, on the retirement speculation that has followed Verstappen through every race weekend so far — Mekies addressed all of it. And his answer to most of it came back to the same thing. Build the car. Everything else follows. "We are conscious that the priority is that we give him a car he can push with. We knew we gave him and Isack a very difficult car in the first three races," Mekies said, not bothering to dress it up. It's a rare moment of straight admission from a team principal — an acknowledgement that Red Bull went into the season underprepared and that the burden of that fell squarely on their drivers. Verstappen has made his feelings about 2026 abundantly clear. The regulations, the car, the driving experience — he's taken shots at all of it. But Mekies pushed back on the idea that the public version of Verstappen is the complete picture. "The Max we see is a fully committed Max. He wants a fast car and he's helping the team to get a fast car. He's bringing all his energy to that," he told Sky Sports. "He is very passionate about the sport, and he did indeed make himself heard the moment he felt things had to change." In other words — the frustration is real, but so is the investment. Those two things aren't mutually exclusive. The Lambiase news sharpened the exit talk considerably. A race engineer of that standing heading to McLaren, of all places, was always going to fuel the rumour mill. Mekies moved to contain it, saying Verstappen had been kept across the conversations throughout. "We are an open book. Max does not assess the project from the outside, but he is in the middle of it." When asked whether it could trigger Verstappen's own departure, Mekies didn't hesitate: "Absolutely not. That's my direct answer to you." Miami is where Red Bull need to start backing those words up with something tangible. The RB22 is rumoured to be around 10 kilograms overweight — a fundamental limitation that goes well beyond setup tweaks. The upgrade arriving this weekend is aimed at addressing that, and Mekies was candid about what unlocking it would actually mean. Not pole positions, not race wins necessarily — just a car that lets Verstappen "start to bring his Max effect" and gives the development programme something real to build on. As for what happens at the end of the year, Mekies kept it simple: "We are thinking about getting a fast car. And if we get a fast car, there is no discussion about what Max is doing next year." No grand promises. No emotional appeals to loyalty or legacy. Just the belief that a fast car fixes most things — and that somewhere in the corridors of the Miami paddock, that process finally starts.