Laurent Mekies believes that Red Bull Racing will start the 2026 F1 season on the back foot compared to other teams who have been making F1 engines for decades, as well as supplying them to other teams. However, he has a plan to come back fighting.
At the Red Bull Racing livery launch, Mekies said he expects them to struggle at the start of the season. While he said he doesn’t know what will happen, he understands that introducing a new engine will come with struggles. Speaking to Sky Sports, he said, “We know it’s going to come with some difficulties. We know we are going to have quite a few sleepless nights and a few headaches.
“But please bear with us for the first few months. Nobody underestimates, again, the size of the mountains we have to climb. And it’s a sort of challenge we all want to be associated with. And hopefully, eventually, we’ll come out of it on top.”
The Red Bull Racing principal understands that the season ahead will be difficult and that they have to manage their expectations at the beginning of the year.
“It will be naive to say the least for us to think that, yes, we have done everything from zero with great support from Ford. And then we turn up at the first race, and we are the same level as people that have been doing it for 90 years.
“It’s not going to be like that. We are going to be training them. We are going to be in incredibly high development rate seasons, both on the chassis side and on the P.U. side.”
Mekies on Red Bull Racing’s 2026 F1 plan
In 2025, Red Bull Racing were behind McLaren in terms of car pace and performance. However, throughout the season, they worked their way into a championship title fight with Max Verstappen. Mekies points to the Red Bull Racing team, believing they can do it once again.
“We believe in our people, and therefore the fact that we’ve put together what we believe is an extremely strong team with extremely strong partners, as you pointed out earlier, will click in, will bring more and more to the business,” he said. “And you have seen last year on a season which was the last season of a regulation cycle. You could still see how much the team can do through the season in terms of development.
“Well, take that for 2026, multiply by three or four in terms of development rate, certainly for us in terms of how much we have to learn. So we take it step by step, but with the right level of aggressiveness.”
