Laurent Mekies spoke in a print media session after the Singapore round and confirmed that Red Bull will not introduce any upgrades for the US GP, having completed its planned development programme for the 2026 F1 season. Despite shifting its focus to 2027, the team principal believes Red Bull can remain competitive and fight for victories in the remaining races.
Confidence in maintaining competitive F1 pace
Mekies highlighted the performance shown across different circuits, with Red Bull securing two victories from the last three races. On a high-speed street track in Baku, a permanent circuit in Malaysia, and a lower-speed street venue at Marina Bay, Max Verstappen has challenged for wins at all three rounds, just falling short against George Russell in Azerbaijan.
Upgrades to the RB22 for Baku unlocked more performance and moved them into a position of becoming race winning challengers.
“You know, I think what is a fact is that in these last three races, we had the pace to win and actually we won two out of the three. So, for the first time this season, in these three races, we had the ultimate pace. And it’s fair to say that the three tracks are different enough for one to think that moving to other type of tracks, the car should be competitive.”
Pleased with competitiveness the past few races ahead of the F1 US GP
Mekies is pleased with Red Bull’s progress given the tough start they had to the year. He acknowledged that maintaining that competitiveness level is not guaranteed as rivals continue developing their cars. He used the struggles that McLaren and Mercedes faced in recent F1 races.
The French engineer also emphasised that even if teams experience struggles during a race weekend, extracting everything should be a priority.
“And that’s also what we think, that the car should be competitive, having shown what it has shown in the last three races. Now, it’s never a given. And you have seen, with many, many examples this year, you had the back-to-back wins from the McLaren and then suffered a bit more after. You had some very dominant periods from Mercedes-Benz and after that been suffering. So, it’s a fight every race weekend to extract everything. If you do so, we think we can fight for wins.”
Mekies confirms that the team’s upgrade programme for this season has been completed as they prepare for the F1 US GP.
”There is another element, which is that, as it is well documented, we have completed our updated programme for this year. So, this peaking order could very rapidly change if some or many of our competitors bring upgrades.”
Mekies: No upgrades for Red Bull at the US GP and beyond
Red Bull and Mekies confirmed that there will be no upgrades to the car for the US GP or beyond that.
He clarified that the decision does not mean Red Bull will stop working to improve its performance. Instead, the team intends to continue improving the current package while gathering information that could prove valuable for next season.
”No. There will be no substantial upgrade to the car. Now, don’t get me wrong, it does not mean that we will not continue to push very hard to improve, continue to push very hard to use every remaining races to learn for this year and to learn for next year.”
Having introduced its final major update package at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, Red Bull Racing has already redirected most of its development focus towards next season’s car. The remaining races will also provide Red Bull with an opportunity to better understand its current car and identify areas that could be improved for 2027 considering the regulation changes.
“That’s what we have to say to each other. The first win is the target, but the other target is to take all the learning. So, the development programme will not change. We have put our focus to ’27. We think there is still a huge amount of learning in ’26 that we could use in ’27. I’d like to take the time to say a huge congrats to Pierre’s team, to Ben’s team, for the work they have done in order to be in that position to fight for the win on different tracks.”
Mekies: Important to extract everything no matter the result
Mekies added that Red Bull’s approach involves critically evaluating its performance even after successful weekends, ensuring the team continues to identify opportunities to improve.
Singapore saw Max Verstappen win both the Sprint and Grand Prix. However, bad launches and Isack Hadjar’s many problems are proof of the job ahead.
”As I said, even on a weekend where you take two poles and two wins like this weekend, we are still very honest with each other about the fact that there were still a number of things we would like to see better done, even on a weekend like here. That’s the spirit of this team and it’s with that spirit that we will go on and reset and tackle the next races.”
