Racing
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Laurent Mekies said Red Bull’s third place in the Canadian Grand Prix confirmed the progress it found in Miami and will not change the team’s willingness to take setup risks, even after Max Verstappen publicly criticized the car direction on Saturday.
Montreal gave Red Bull its first podium of the 2026 season, and Mekies argued it was more than an isolated result. The Red Bull team principal said the team had at least “confirmed the Miami steps” and probably found a little more, pointing to a reduced gap to the front. After running about half a second off in Miami, Red Bull was around three tenths away in qualifying in Canada, and closer in race trim than when it finished 40 seconds from victory in Miami.
That made the result notable because it followed a difficult Saturday. Verstappen qualified sixth and said Red Bull had not listened to his preferred setup direction, telling Dutch media in the paddock: “I’ve pointed it out so many times already, but sometimes you just have to let them feel for themselves that it doesn’t work.”
Mekies, speaking after the race to Motorsport.com, said that tension is part of the process rather than a sign the team had gone off course. “We take risks every time we don't feel that we are at the right balance or at the right gap to the competition,” he said. “It's only the beginning of the year, and it’s the beginning with this generation of cars. We are going to try things with our drivers to unlock something, even if it's costing us something.”
He insisted Montreal was not a departure from Red Bull’s normal method. Asked if the approach had changed, Mekies replied: “Absolutely not.” He said the drivers are “completely integrated in the choices we make,” even if the process can lead to a bit of “I told you” between driver and team. For Red Bull, that trade-off is acceptable if it sharpens its understanding of what works in qualifying and what carries into the race.
Mekies framed that as necessary pain for a car Red Bull still does not fully understand. He said the team is still learning where the ultimate potential lies and that taking risks is the only way to uncover it, even if some experiments hurt drivability or weekend momentum.
The result still came with caveats. Mekies warned against reading too much into one weekend, saying Circuit Gilles Villeneuve may have been more forgiving of some of the car’s weaknesses, even as he argued Red Bull was moving in the right direction with development despite rivals bringing more updates. Verstappen struck a similar note after the race, saying the podium was “not a complete reflection of the competitive order” because George Russell retired and McLaren “made a mess of the strategy.”