F1 ‘watching history’ as Max Verstappen resurgence hailed by Red Bull boss

Red Bull team boss Laurent Mekies believes F1 is seeing something “extraordinary” unfolding in Max Verstappen’s championship resurgence.

Having been 104 points behind Oscar Piastri after the Dutch Grand Prix, Verstappen’s victory in the United States closed that gap down to just 40 points after a run of form that has seen the four-time F1 World Champion’s title chances rekindled.

Laurent Mekies hails Red Bull’s ‘strongest weekend’

Red Bull’s second-half turnaround in performance began to take shape after the summer break, with Verstappen claiming second to Piastri at the Dutch Grand Prix.

That remains Piastri’s most recent victory, with Verstappen winning in Monza and Azerbaijan, taking second place in Singapore, and then scoring a Sprint Race victory and Grand Prix victory in Texas.

All told, Verstappen has reduced the gap from 104 to 40 points in the last four events, having scored 119 out of a maximum 133 points in the last five race weekends.

It’s even motivated Verstappen to admit the championship fight could be back on, although it’s likely the Dutch driver will still need some fortune to get fully back in contention given the prospect is currently more based on momentum rather than proximity.

Having shown a clean pair of heels to everyone at the Circuit of the Americas last weekend as Verstappen capitalised on a tough weekend for McLaren, the Dutch driver’s taking 23 points out of Piastri’s lead in two days even seems to have surprised his Red Bull team boss Laurent Mekies, who was atypically effusive after the high of the victory.

“I think watching Max driving is watching history in the making,” he told the accredited media, including PlanetF1.com, after the United States Grand Prix.

“He surprises us every time he goes out on track, he surprised us on how much he’s pushing us between a session and another, how much sensitivity he has in stuff that we sometimes can see and sometimes we cannot see.

“So I think watching him is watching history in the making.”

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The COTA circuit represented a particularly big hurdle for Red Bull, after a spate of tracks that, due to their more extreme setup requirements across the downforce range, ended up playing into the Milton Keynes-based squad’s hands.

COTA’s variety of corner types, coupled with a bumpy surface and higher tyre degradation, something that has been a McLaren advantage through this season, meant Red Bull’s performance underlined the improvements made in recent race weekends.

“It’s probably our strongest weekend in a long while, on a burning hot track where, in the past, it  has been tricky for us in these conditions,” he said.

“Max kept increasing the gap to competitors through every sessions; if you think back to how tight it was on Friday, even though he was on pole, and now to proper near-domination today.

“So it’s a big well done to everyone back at base. We have been taking risks all weekend, not taking everything for granted, and ultimately found more and more performance as the weekend went through.

“So, honestly, we are going to keep that approach. We don’t look at the big numbers. We look at what we can learn every session, how we can get the best possible car on the ground in Mexico in a week’s time.”

Red Bull’s performance uptick has also been borne out by an improved showing from Yuki Tsunoda, who finished seventh, following on from his sixth-place finish in Baku.

Laurent Mekies: Max Verstappen driving at an incredible level

The complexion of the title fight is very different, once again, for Verstappen this year.

After winning his first title as the plucky upstart seeking to topple the establishment in 2021, followed by two dominant titles, his F1 2024 campaign was one in which the Dutch driver had to massage his early lead home against a quicker driver and car package in Lando Norris and McLaren.

This year, it’s a role reversal, with Verstappen coming back fast against the McLarens, armed with a car he now appears fully in tune with, albeit without much by way of discernible pace advantage.

Asked whether the improved results are down to a combination of Red Bull with Verstappen, or whether the Dutch driver solely is making the difference, Mekies was unequivocal.

“We don’t separate Max and the car and the team, it’s one group,” he said.

“Max is not sitting outside of the project, watching the project. He is at the heart of the project.

“We do not feel we are in a dominant position, but we certainly feel that we have canceled out a large part of the deficit we had in the first part of the season, and now it’s down to to the last details.

“But don’t get me wrong. Even on the weekend like this, there will be things we can learn.

“There will be things that we didn’t get fully right. That’s where our focus, our intensity, goes, analysing our data, challenging each other, because that’s what we do, and getting the car in the best possible shape for Mexico.

“What I can tell you is what I think it is is everyone back at the factory, 1500 people, working to extract that.

“They have a small part of lap time in their hands. It may not show on any trackers, but the work they are putting in is just unbelievable, and it’s adding up. They are taking risks. It’s uncomfortable. They are pushing, as they are on both fronts, with with next and this year’s car, and they have been able to unlock so much.

“Max has been driving at an incredible level. We have to probably admit that we are witnessing something quite extraordinary. All together, it has probably produced that turnaround.”

With the gloves off for the final five race weekends, and apparently little to separate the performance levels of the RB21 and McLaren’s MCL39, Mekies said he believes the laptime deficit that was present earlier in the year has now been eradicated.

“I think, in terms of relative performance, [McLaren] don’t have the advantage they had in the first part of the season anymore compared to us,” he said.

“We are now in situations where… even back in Spa, when we won the Sprint, we were still a fair half a second slower than them, every lap.

“Even in Zandvoort after the shutdown, we are still probably half a second slower than them every lap.

“I think that has now gone and and we are in situations where you go to a race weekend and you have three or four teams that can fight for the win, if they extract everything they can and their car can produce on that track.

“So I don’t think anyone is in a dominant position.

“I think every race of the remaining races will be about which one of these four teams is nailing the track layout, the conditions, the temperatures, the tyres, and then that guy will win the race.”

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