Mekies: “We have to moderate expectations for the first part of the season and Verstappen knows it”

A gigantic challenge The 2026 season of the Formula 1 world championship will also be the season of the courageous choice of Red Bull, which has decided to build its own engine in-house – taking advantage of the synergy with Ford -, launching the challenge to manufacturers who have been producing engines for decades.
In an interview with the Dutch De Telegraaf, team principal Laurent Mekies explained: “We will have to moderate expectations for the first part of the season, making sure that the chassis and engine work. After that we will make progress, or at least I hope so, but it has always been like this in previous years.” Difficulties and the Max factor Mekies, however, underlined when Max Verstappen is aware of the situation and involved in the project: “The first months will be difficult, we will have sleepless nights, and perhaps sometimes we will struggle to get the car out of the garage. But we believe we have the right structure to find the path to success. Thinking we can immediately reach the highest level would be naive and crazy. And Max understands this perfectly. But it doesn’t mean that we don’t have the ambition to become number 1. Max is involved in every discussion, in every analysis and in the choice of risks”. Helmut Marko often puffed out his chest and proudly emphasized the ‘Max factor’. In his style, Laurent Mekies expressed the same concept: “With Max we have a triple advantage. First of all his level of involvement in the project, then his sensitivity at the wheel and his ability to manage everything and finally his way of pushing the team in the right direction.”