Mekies: Red Bull now ‘paying the price’ for 2025 gamble

There is a certain irony playing out at Red Bull: the same relentless pursuit of perfection that nearly salvaged its 2025 title campaign may now be undermining its present.

Team principal Laurent Mekies has admitted the squad is “paying the price” for pushing development of last year’s car deep into the season, a decision driven by Max Verstappen’s late championship charge.

That charge was remarkable. Verstappen clawed back a 104-point deficit over the final nine races, ultimately falling just two points short of Lando Norris, with Oscar Piastri also in the mix for McLaren. But the comeback came at a cost – one now being felt in the early part of 2026.

With the sport’s budget cap and aerodynamic testing limits squeezing development bandwidth, Red Bull’s decision to continue refining the RB21 into late October – long after rivals had pivoted to 2026 regulations – has left its new RB22 lagging.

Three races into the season, the team is only sixth in the Constructors’ standings, trailing Mercedes by 119 points and sitting even behind Haas and Alpine.

‘We pay a bit of the price today’

Mekies, speaking candidly, made clear the decision was deliberate – and, in his view, justified.

“That was easy because nobody wanted to give up,” he said, speaking on the Beyond the Grid podcast.

“We thought and we still think it was the right thing to do, because we felt that turning the page to ‘26 would have been a little bit of an easy escape and a wishful thinking that next year will be better, even though we didn't fully understand what were the limitations of ‘25.”

“We didn't think it was the right way. Now, of course, the time and energy we invested for the late push last year, does it have an impact on where you start ’26? Of course, it does. So, of course, we pay a bit of the price today.”

There is no attempt to deflect blame. The Frenchman is unequivocal about the team’s current position.

“Do we use it as an excuse? No. We are not happy with the starting point, but we think we will get through these difficulties. As we did last year, we will get a full understanding of the limitations.

“And this team has been very, very good in turning things around, and we have another chance to do it this year.”

A gamble fueled by defiance

If Red Bull miscalculated, it did so with conviction. Mekies paints a picture of a team unwilling to abandon a flawed car without understanding it – an ethos that defined its late-2025 surge.

“It made me feel so happy for the girls and the guys in the team because they had such a difficult start of the season last year,” Mekies pointed out. “The car was not performing at the level they were hoping. Pressure was high.

“You come to the middle of the season and you get a new boss. With the new regulations coming for 2026, with the new power unit projects, there were all the reasons in the world to say, ‘Well, you know what, let's turn the page. ‘25 did not work. Let's concentrate on 26’.

“You would have been mad to do anything differently, to want to do things differently.

“And the truth is, nobody wanted to do that in Milton Keynes. Nobody wanted to turn the page. They all wanted to get to the bottom of that ‘25 car, get to the bottom of what didn't work to the level expected, and turn things around.

“And yes, they knew there would be a price to pay for later, but that's how deep is the fighting spirit in the team.”

That “price” is now visible on the stopwatch.

From fighting spirit to fragile start

Red Bull’s late-season push in 2025 delivered victories – but also volatility. Mekies does not romanticize the path taken.

“And so when they all put the extra effort to try to understand what was limiting us, try to bring upgrades and solutions to cure the issues we had, taking a huge amount of risk in doing so – it has not been a smooth second part of the year.

“We had the many wins, but we also had extremely painful races – I'm sure you recall Zandvoort or Budapest, or maybe Saturday in Brazil.”

“So all these successes came with that incredible spirit of the team there, that didn't want to give up. All the successes came from the massive risk-taking that the team had to take in that short amount of time to turn things around.”

That spirit remains – but the context has shifted. In 2025, Red Bull was chasing a title. In 2026, it is chasing its rivals.

And this time, the recovery may be far more difficult.

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