Red Bull Racing finished the Dutch Grand Prix of Formula 1 with reasons for concern. While Liam Lawson saved seventh place, Max Verstappen retired after an accident early in the race, and Laurent Mekies acknowledged that the team performed worse than in previous rounds.
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The Red Bull boss described the weekend in Zandvoort as ‘very difficult’, and stated that there was a drop in performance compared to the races before the break. According to Mekies, it will still be necessary to understand whether the competitors advanced more with their updates, or if some specific factor limited the team’s performance in the Netherlands.
“In terms of performance, there is nowhere to hide. It was a very difficult weekend, and it seems we took a small step back compared to where we were before the holidays,” Mekies assessed. The executive added that Red Bull will have the next two weeks to analyze the scenario before the race in Monza.
Verstappen was unable to finish the race. The Dutch driver explained that he tried to accelerate on a section that seemed dry, but lost control of the car in an extremely slippery area due to rain before the race, ending up in the barrier: “It was a shame how my race ended today, but I’m totally fine,” said the Dutchman, who also acknowledged that the team did not have the pace to fight for the win in Zandvoort.
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Lawson, in turn, finished seventh and secured the points available for the team. The New Zealander highlighted the difficulty of competing with a different car and stated that there was no pace to keep up with the drivers ahead, but considered that Red Bull extracted the maximum possible from the equipment. Mekies also praised his performance, recalling that he was only a tenth behind Verstappen in Q3 and managed to convert the opportunity into points.
Verstappen’s accident also affected Lawson, who was right behind at the moment of the crash: “That part of the track was incredibly slippery, and with slick tires it was very easy to lose the car there. I was right behind him, so it was a scary moment,” added the Racing Bulls driver, who replaced the injured Isack Hadjar this weekend at Red Bull Racing.
Mekies stated that the priority now will be to regroup the team and find out the origin of the performance loss: “We have a lot of work ahead to regroup and find out if the competition did a better job with the updates, or if something limited us more than it should here in Zandvoort,” he concluded.
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