Red Bull may have fallen agonisingly short of the 2026 drivers’ title, but team principal Laurent Mekies believes the way the season finished could prove just as valuable as a championship trophy.
After a bruising mid-season slump, the Milton Keynes squad roared back into contention in the closing stages, a resurgence Mekies says underpins the team’s confidence heading into Formula 1’s new regulatory era.
Max Verstappen ultimately missed out on the crown by just two points in a thrilling three-way fight with McLaren’s Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri. Yet the bigger story inside Red Bull was how a campaign that looked derailed by summer was dramatically turned around, restoring belief not just in the car’s engineering, but in the team’s way of working.
With Red Bull also preparing for a landmark step into 2026 as a power unit manufacturer, that momentum could hardly be better timed.
A Turnaround to Believe In
Reflecting on the season finale in Abu Dhabi – a race Verstappen won in dominant fashion – Mekies was quick to underline what mattered most.
“I guess the first thing we look at is a race win,” the 48-year-old told reporters in Abu Dhabi.
“A win is a win — it's difficult enough. So, race win, dominant pole, fundamentally a dominant race pace on a difficult track.
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“I think for everyone who has worked hard on this car, it's very telling. We were not dominating in Qatar, and to finish on a note like that, on a clean race, for us, is the dominating factor.”
That confidence was hard-earned. After Verstappen slipped to 104 points behind Piastri by the Dutch Grand Prix, Red Bull’s title hopes looked all but over. A crucial floor upgrade introduced at Monza changed everything, kickstarting a run of six wins in the final nine race weekends.
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“Then, if you look back to the season, truly think the turnaround was sensational, and the girls and the guys back at home should be proud of what has been achieved,” Mekies said.
“I don't think it has happened very often in the last few years or decades, and that's what we look at. It allows us to go into the winter with a level of confidence in our tools, in our methodologies, in our approaches. That is important.
“Some of that, we'll be able to carry on to next year's regulations. Some of that will become less relevant...”
Lessons, not regrets
Despite Verstappen’s narrow title defeat, Mekies was reluctant to dwell on where those missing two points might have been lost.
“And I don't think we should now go into making the list of the circumstances in which we could have found these two points,” he added.
“No, we will probably do it internally, in a way that we will learn from the mistakes we make, but we don't need to wait for the end of the championship to do that. We always do it anyway.
“But the two points could be everywhere. What is important is that we, as a group, turned things around in the way that has been done, and once again, all the credit should go to our people in Milton Keynes for having believed in this year's project and having been proven right.”
For Red Bull, the late-season surge was more than a comeback – it was a statement of intent as the sport prepares to turn the page in 2026.
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