Red Bull left Yas Marina on Sunday with heads held high, even if the 2025 world championship slipped away by the smallest of margins.
Max Verstappen did everything asked of him – and then some – but Lando Norris’s third-place finish proved just enough to deny the Dutchman a fifth straight crown.
For new team principal Laurent Mekies, though, there was no sense of regret. If anything, he emerged from Abu Dhabi brimming with pride over Red Bull’s late-season resurgence and the “perfect race” that capped it off.
“Extremely proud of the team. It’s an amazing comeback, an amazing win.” Mekies told F1 TV moments after Verstappen took the chequered flag.
“A dominant win today in a clean race. It’s not a track where we were expecting to dominate, but that’s what the guys with Max have been able to do, to come up with a super-fast car here.
“Very, very proud of the amazing job everyone in Milton Keynes has done to give us not only that race but a sensational comeback in the second part of the year.”
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Despite starting the weekend 12 points behind Norris, Verstappen took pole, controlled the Grand Prix from the start, and executed a flawless tyre management plan. But Norris’s podium sealed his maiden title — by just two points.
Still, Mekies was magnanimous in defeat.
“Well done to Lando, it was a tough but a great fight,” he added. “I hope it was great as well for the fans to have this championship still open up until the end of the year, the very last lap of the last race. And that’s it, we’ll try harder next.”
The Most Perfect Race
Asked whether Red Bull could have done anything differently to swing the championship their way, Mekies was unequivocal.
“No, really I don’t think so,” he said. “It was the most perfect race in terms of how the team and Max have managed it from the start – from the pole of yesterday, starting from a difficult Friday to a dominant pole yesterday, leading pretty much from the beginning to the end, super good tyre management.
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“I don’t think there is anything better than that. We cannot control what’s happening behind. We just look at ourselves, and I don’t think we could have done anything better today.”
Indeed, given where Red Bull were earlier in the season – at one point over 100 points adrift – even arriving in Abu Dhabi with a title shot bordered on the improbable.
Penalties, Farewells and a Season to Remember
The other side of the garage had its own drama. Yuki Tsunoda, driving his last race for the team before shifting into a reserve role for 2026, picked up a five-second penalty for moving more than once under braking while defending from Norris.
Mekies admitted the stewards’ verdict caught him off guard.
“It was a surprise,” he said. “But it’s always the hardest job in the world for the stewards to come up with something in some situations. It was a surprise, but ultimately it did not affect the result of the championship, so we just keep the win and well done to Lando for the title.”
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As the curtain fell on a 24-race marathon, Mekies couldn’t help but reflect on the magnitude of the team’s turnaround.
“It’s always full of emotion. I think the first dominant feeling is that we got a sensational turnaround, something that you don’t see every year, probably you don’t see every decade, and that’s what the girls and the guys have done.
“So that’s the main feeling – very, very proud, very impressed by this team that never ever gave up on this season, and it was pure racing spirit up until the last lap. We are missing two points, but it doesn’t change how extraordinary this turnaround has been.”
Two points short – but a comeback for the ages. Red Bull may not leave 2025 with the crown, but they leave with something that might matter just as much: pride.
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