Red Bull Paying Price for Late 2025 Development Push, Says Mekies

Red Bull Racing team principal Laurent Mekies has conceded that the Milton Keynes-based outfit is paying a price in the 2026 season after developing last year's car late into the season, as Max Verstappen launched an incredible title comeback that ultimately fell just two points short of Lando Norris.

The 2026 season has been challenging for Red Bull, with sweeping new regulations, reliability issues, and a lack of pace hampering their early performance. Additionally, the squad is producing their own power unit for the first time in partnership with Ford, creating an ambitious project with plenty of learnings ahead.

Four-time champion Max Verstappen has only managed a season's best finish of sixth in the opening three rounds of 2026, a stark contrast to the form Red Bull showed in the latter half of the thrilling 2025 season. Upgrades following the mid-season break helped catapult Red Bull and Verstappen back to the top, with the Dutchman winning six of the last nine races.

Mekies, who took charge at Red Bull midway through 2025 after being promoted from his role at Racing Bulls to replace Christian Horner, explained that the team faced a critical decision: go all out in 2025 in a bid for Verstappen's fifth title or write off the season to focus on 2026 and the new regulations.

The Decision to Attack 2025

"[Verstappen's comeback] made me feel so happy for the girls and the guys in the team because they had such a difficult start of the season last year," Mekies told Beyond The Grid. "The car was not performing at the level they were hoping. The pressure was high. You come to the middle of the season and you get a new boss. With the new regulations coming for 2026, with the new power unit projects, there were all the reasons in the world to say, 'well, you know what? Let's turn the page, 2025 did not work. Let's concentrate on 2026.'"

"You would have been mad to do anything differently, to want to do things differently. The truth is, nobody wanted to do that in Milton Keynes. Nobody wanted to turn the page. They all wanted to get to the bottom of that '25 car, get to the bottom of what didn't work, and turn things around."

"And yes, they knew there would be a price to pay later, but that's how deep is the fighting spirit in the team. They all put the extra effort to try to understand what was limiting us, try to bring upgrades and solutions to cure the issues we had, taking a huge amount of risk in doing so."

Current 2026 Challenges

While Verstappen's form was exemplary in the latter half of 2025, his 2026 results have been more challenging. The Dutchman finished sixth in Australia, ninth in the Shanghai Sprint, retired from the Chinese Grand Prix, and came home eighth in the Japanese Grand Prix. Isack Hadjar, Verstappen's new teammate for 2026, has had similar results with a retirement in Melbourne and P8 and P12 finishes in subsequent races.

With Red Bull currently sixth in the Teams' Standings (behind Alpine and Haas), there is significant work to do to catch up to the frontrunners.

"We thought and we still think it was the right thing to do, because we felt that turning the page to '26 would have been a little bit of an easy escape and a wishful thinking that next year will be better, even though we didn't fully understand what were the limitations of 2025," added Mekies.

"We didn't think it was the right way. Now, of course, the time and energy we invested for the late push last year, does it have an impact on where you start '26? Of course it does. Of course, we pay a bit of the price today. Do we use it as an excuse? No."

Full Attack Mode Despite Challenges

Despite the challenges, Mekies insists Red Bull is not in a "transition year" mentality and remains in "full attack mode."

"We try to do everything we can to make sure this is not a transition year, despite the size of the challenge, despite the new power unit challenge," he said. "We want to make sure that we are not in a transition year. No. We are not at all in that mode. We are in full attack mode."

"As we said, not happy about the starting point. But if you walk in Milton Keynes right now, there is fire in every single department. There is a burning fire of wanting to go back as fast as possible to a more competitive car, to a better position."

"And that's what you feel in Milton Keynes today, is that burning drive to get enough understanding and development to the car, in a way that we can outperform the development of the competition and get back up."

Red Bull's current position reflects the difficult balance teams face between chasing immediate success and preparing for future regulations, but Mekies emphasizes that the team's fighting spirit remains intact as they work to overcome their early 2026 struggles.