Laurent Mekies not surprised by Red Bull deficit after ‘games’ in pre-season testing
Laurent Mekies says he isn't surprised by the Red Bull pace deficit to Mercedes, suggesting games had been played throughout pre-season testing.
Laurent Mekies was not surprised to see Red Bull off the pace of Ferrari and Mercedes in Australia, claiming “games were played” during pre-season testing.
Red Bull started the season with a sixth-place finish in Melbourne, courtesy of Max Verstappen after a recovery from 20th on the grid.
Laurent Mekies says pre-season testing ‘games’ masked Ferrari and Mercedes pace
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Red Bull’s weekend was compromised by Verstappen’s early exit in Q1, when he flew off the road at Turn 1 after a strange incident in which the rear axle of his car appeared to lock up under braking.
It left Verstappen on the back foot and facing a recovery drive from 20th on the grid, while Isack Hadjar was left to represent Red Bull’s best chances of a podium finish as he qualified third and was running in the same position when a technical issue took him out of the race.
Verstappen duly recovered to sixth place, showing a clean pair of heels pace-wise to most of the midfield, and managed to catch up to the back of McLaren’s Lando Norris in fifth, although he failed to find a way past his 2024 and ’25 title rival.
The order of the race corresponded with pre-season paddock predictions about Red Bull and McLaren being a step behind the Mercedes and Ferrari teams, and team boss Laurent Mekies said he hadn’t been surprised by the outcome of the weekend.
“We did predict that we would be fourth of teams coming out of the pre-season testing,” he told the media, including PlanetF1.com, on Sunday evening in Melbourne.
“As it turned out, I think it’s pretty accurate. It was probably a touch better than that this weekend, in the way that Isack was P3 on the grid on a clean qualifying. So he’s done a very good job there to maximise everything.
“In the race, we probably have to say that we were at least on the pace with McLaren, but certainly not able to fight with Ferrari or Mercedes.
“So it’s something that we are aware of. We have the ambition and the duty to build the path to go and get these guys. It will take a bit of time. But no, it was not a surprise.”
During the Bahrain pre-season test, Mercedes had pointed firmly at Red Bull as being the benchmark team and power unit, particularly with regard to a supposed energy deployment advantage.
It was a stance that Red Bull and Verstappen had consistently refuted, and Mekies said his team was not surprised to discover that it wasn’t on pace with some of its rivals.
“In terms of the gap to Mercedes, we said after testing that it was very difficult to evaluate, because we knew some games were being played to hide pace,” he said.
“So I would not say that we are surprised with the gap we see here. It’s probably also what we felt we would end up having to deal with.”
As for what the deficit to Mercedes actually is, Mekies offered an estimate specific to the Australian Grand Prix as he deemed it “too early to say” in the broader picture.
“Overall number today, it was probably close to the second a lap, I would say,” he said.
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While Hadjar had performed strongly in his debut weekend in the RB22, it’s a reasonable assumption that Verstappen may have been able to be ahead of Hadjar had he not suffered his qualifying incident, and Mekies said the team’s investigation into the incident that compromised his weekend had resulted in some caution for the race.
“I would not say that we have the reason 100 per cent, but it’s getting pretty close. We think it’s a combination of factors,” he said.
“We’ve tried to have a couple of actions to stay on the safe side for the race, and some more work will be done between here and China.”
While Australia may have been a somewhat low-key weekend by Red Bull’s usual standards, it marked a big step forward for the team as a whole as it debuted as an autonomous manufacturer for the first time.
The debut weekend for Red Bull Powertrains [RBPT] saw Verstappen score points for the senior squad, while Arvid Lindblad finished eighth in the Racing Bulls in his debut race.
For a first weekend as a brand-new manufacturer, Mekies hailed the achievement.
“The dominant feeling is that we have confirmed that we are in the fight,” he said.
“We are very proud of everyone in Milton Keynes for the work done in the last three years, for the work done coming to this season, to be able to be in the fight straight away from race one. I think it’s a huge achievement.
“We have the ambition and the obligations to do better, yes, but the starting point is that we were fighting here. We think we’ll be fighting in China, and then we’ll start the development race, we’ll start the learning race.
“You have seen how things are imperfect during the race weekend. Many people complained in quali that you could not optimise your lap because it’s effectively difficult session to session, run to run, to nail everything out of these rules.
“So that’s a challenge that we have to embrace. And then the same in the race.
“You saw that we got caught with the formation laps. There has been a lot going on, but the bottom line is we were in the fight here.”
Asked whether this also means Red Bull can be in the fight for the titles as the season goes on, Mekies said, “That’s not what I’m saying. I’m saying we are in the fight because the season is very long, and being top four is the right starting point compared to where the project is at. We have the ambition and obligations to target that.
“We’ll be in the fight of this top four, hopefully, next week, and then after, we need to develop faster than the competition.”
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