{"id":69597,"date":"2025-08-15T06:43:07","date_gmt":"2025-08-15T06:43:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/69597\/"},"modified":"2025-08-15T06:43:07","modified_gmt":"2025-08-15T06:43:07","slug":"how-laurent-mekies-is-boosting-max-verstappens-confidence-in-red-bulls-long-term-f1-future","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/69597\/","title":{"rendered":"How Laurent Mekies is boosting Max Verstappen\u2019s confidence in Red Bull\u2019s long-term F1 future"},"content":{"rendered":"

Max Verstappen<\/a> acknowledges that Laurent Mekies<\/a>\u2019 arrival won\u2019t deliver immediate results but believes the new Red Bull<\/a> boss is already setting the stage for future success in Formula 1<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Dutchman said goodbye to his former team principal, Christian Horner, who was replaced by the Austrian outfit following a string of disappointing performances this season.<\/p>\n

Verstappen has struggled to remain in the title fight, and despite standout victories in Japan and Imola, he has often been left with a car that cannot consistently challenge for wins, while McLaren continues to dominate both championships.<\/p>\n

The RB21 has continued to prove tricky to drive heading into this season, with a balance that remains too unstable even for the reigning World Champion to handle. Results have yet to improve under Mekies\u2019 leadership; Verstappen\u2019s ninth-place finish in Hungary marked his joint-worst result of the season alongside his DNF in Austria.<\/p>\n

Still, the Dutchman sees promise in the new direction. When asked whether Mekies\u2019 arrival presented an opportunity to reset and push for changes that may previously have met resistance, Verstappen offered an upbeat assessment of his approach.<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, absolutely \u2013 that\u2019s always the case,\u201d he told media including Motorsport Week. \u201cOf course, it\u2019s still very early days, but I do like how Laurent is working. <\/p>\n

\u201cVery motivated, constantly asking the right questions to me, but also to the team.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s nice to see. This year it\u2019s very difficult to see any kind of benefit from that, but I hope in the coming year, two years, that we can really see his touch to the team. I\u2019m very excited for that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"MaxMax Verstappen reaffirmed his commitment to Red Bull in Budapest<\/p>\n

Mekies on securing Red Bull\u2019s crown jewel<\/p>\n

With Mekies already making an impression behind the scenes, attention naturally turns to Red Bull\u2019s biggest asset. Securing Verstappen\u2019s future has been a priority for the team, and the new leadership is clear on how it intends to approach it.<\/p>\n

Ahead of his debut weekend with the team in Belgium, Mekies outlined how the focus remains squarely on performance rather than negotiations.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn terms of priority, I\u2019m sure what Max wants is a fast car,\u201d he said. \u201cIf we get him a fast car, it cancels out all the other considerations.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo really, the focus is very much, as we said earlier, to get to know the team as quickly as possible in order to see how we can support, how we can build the next step of competitiveness in order to get a fast car and hence make it an easy call for Max.\u201d<\/p>\n

Verstappen reaffirmed his commitment to Red Bull ahead of the Hungarian Grand Prix,<\/a> putting to rest speculation linking him with a move to Mercedes.<\/p>\n

With his contract running through the end of the 2028 season, Verstappen\u2019s future at Red Bull was never truly in doubt \u2014 though with performances dipping, that could always shift, especially ahead of a major reset next year with the 2026 regulations.<\/p>\n

READ MORE \u2014 Red Bull accuses Toto Wolff of \u2018stirring up\u2019 Max Verstappen to Mercedes rumours<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Max Verstappen acknowledges that Laurent Mekies\u2019 arrival won\u2019t deliver immediate results but believes the new Red Bull boss…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":69598,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[573],"tags":[64,63,817,813,816,825,38068,15196,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-69597","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-formula-1","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-f1","11":"tag-formula-1","12":"tag-formula1","13":"tag-max-verstappen","14":"tag-mekies","15":"tag-redbull","16":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69597","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=69597"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69597\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/69598"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=69597"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=69597"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=69597"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}