The Austrian team boss admitted that "many good drivers" are calling to show their interest in a seat. Red Bull trusts in maintaining its current lineup and continuing to work to win.
Laurent Mekies, Red Bull team principal, has revealed that "many good drivers" are calling the team to show their interest in a seat amid speculation about Max Verstappen's future. With the summer break around the corner, conversations about lineups for 2027 have intensified, and market movements seem to depend largely on what the Dutchman decides.
"It's completely natural that Max receives calls from everyone because he's the best driver in the world, and in the same way, if you're a top team, you're going to receive calls from many of these good drivers, so it's natural. Is it a distraction for us? Not really" declared Mekies to Sky Sports F1 during the Belgian Grand Prix weekend.
Max Verstappen has a contract with Red Bull until the end of 2028, but it is believed that there are performance based exit clauses that could allow him to leave before the contract ends. The Dutchman has not won any race this season, as the team has struggled to match the success of Mercedes and Ferrari. Although Red Bull has worked to reduce the gap, Verstappen has been linked with a possible move to McLaren, the current constructors' world champion.
Laurent Mekies insisted that the team's focus is on improving the car and retaining its current lineup: "Our main goal is to make that car as fast as possible and that way you will keep the best driver in the world, and we also see the enormous growth of Isack Hadjar alongside Max, and that for us is the ideal pairing, and we are trying to make sure we can keep that pairing" he stated.
Max Verstappen has suffered from a lack of pace, poor reliability, and unpredictable accidents caused by a faulty rear wing that Red Bull replaced in Belgium, where he achieved his third podium of the season. Despite not having been able to challenge Mercedes consistently, the team showed last year that they can make notable progress in a short period of time, as Verstappen came back from a 104-point deficit to finish the season just two points shy of a fifth title.
"Red Bull Racing's goal is only one: to win, and it's the same goal that Max has. It's not about how we can prove to him that we can win, we are here to win anyway. It's the same group of people who made the incredible comeback last year which was only a few months ago, it's the same group of people who, despite that late push, managed to reduce almost a second of the gap to the competition, and they weren't waiting for us in the last races" explained Mekies.
The Red Bull boss acknowledged that the team is in the most difficult moment: "Now we are in the heart of the fight, in the last tenths, the most difficult to achieve, but what we have to do is keep working as a united group, and that's how we will produce the best results," concluded Mekies.
