Mekies: “With Verstappen we are not talking about retirement. Max, passionate about F1, wants the sport to go in the right direction”

Verstappen and the retirement hypothesis F1 turns off its engines but turns on its ideas. The Circus, which was forced into hiatus due to the war in Iran, is looking in the mirror to change what is clearly wrong: we are at the dawn of the new regulation, so there is time to intervene, but we must act immediately so as not to lose the interest of the fans. And the meeting on April 9th ​​in London will serve precisely this purpose. Also encouraging a regulatory swerve is the fear of losing Max Verstappen, who has threatened several times to abandon F1 if the latter continues to humiliate the drivers’ driving, not only in Saturday qualifying (where pushing to the limit actually becomes counterproductive) but also in the race, between artificial overtaking and safety problems. Mekies’ words The possible abandonment of Verstappen, of course, is a scenario that would debilitate not only the sport but also Red Bull. Team principal Laurent Mekies, however, does not seem worried by this hypothesis: “At the moment we are not talking about retirement with Max. We are thoroughly analyzing how to go faster with our car. He is passionate about F1 and wants to contribute to F1 going in the right direction. And therefore he clearly expresses the changes he deems necessary to give his all in qualifying and have good races.” “We have the tools to change the regulations so that in qualifying we go back to pushing hard while maintaining all the positive aspects that we see in racing. If we do that, I have full confidence that Max will continue to see what we all see, which is that on the grid there are still the 22 best drivers in the world and the fastest cars on the planet. If you came to Milton Keynes you would see the fire behind every door. And you would understand why we don’t think about the driver market in 2027. We think about having a fast car. And if we have a fast car, there will be no discussion about what Max will do next year,” concluded the former Ferrari man. Who, therefore, is of the party according to which Verstappen’s stomach aches are mainly caused by the poor performance of Red Bull.