Laurent Mekies made clear Red Bull Racing’s goal for the remainder of the 2026 Formula 1 season: to win races again. The team principal stated that the current moment, although representing an important evolution, is still not enough.
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Red Bull remains the only one of the teams considered favorites for the title that has not yet won a race this year. At the Hungarian GP, before the August break, Lando Norris won for McLaren, while Max Verstappen finished second, fifteen seconds behind the Briton.
Mekies highlighted the progress made by the team throughout the first half of the year. According to the Frenchman, Red Bull went from a 1.2-second deficit to about three tenths by mid-season, even in a competitive scenario.
“We didn’t sign up for anything less than winning races,” Mekies said. The Red Bull chief, however, made a point of praising the work done in the chassis and power unit areas, as well as the efforts made by the team in the face of challenges encountered in development.
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The executive also highlighted the contribution of the approximately 2,000 team members to the gains achieved. Part of the improvements came from updates, while other advances were the result of work done behind the scenes, allowing Red Bull to reach a position where it regularly fights for podiums, at least with Verstappen.
“Some of them you never hear about, but that put us back in a position where we are now fighting for the podium in every race,” he added. Still, the Frenchman emphasized that the team does not intend to consider the current scenario as sufficient.
“Don’t count on me to say that we are satisfied, because we are not. We will not be satisfied until we have a race car again that has the pace to win on merit,” Mekies concluded.
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