Laurent Mekies targets ‘fight for the podium’ but warns Mercedes remains benchmark
Incremental performance gains across Monza, Madrid, and Baku have placed Red Bull on the brink of regular silverware as the flyaway leg continues.
Red Bull had featured on the podium on nine occasions across the 2026 Formula 1 season with Max Verstappen and Isack Hadjar, but they took the next step at the Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia.
At the Sepang International Circuit, Verstappen took the team's first victory of the 2026 season, which was also the first victory for Red Bull Powertrains.
Not only did Verstappen have success during the Grand Prix, but he also secured pole position on Saturday, with Hadjar qualifying in third, before being relegated to eighth due to a grid place penalty.
After the victory in Malaysia, Red Bull Racing Team Principal, Laurent Mekies, explained that he believes Red Bull will be ‘in the fight for the podium’ in the upcoming races.
However, he still believes Mercedes are the team to beat and that it is ‘very difficult to be consistently on par with Mercedes’.
"We were surprised by the pecking order in Malaysia," said Mekies after the Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia.
"On one side, it's confirming the positive trend now with Monza, with Madrid, with Baku. We have been adding a little bit of performance at every race, which is great.
"On the other side, are there other factors that have influenced what we have seen in Malaysia?
“Possibly, with the extreme heat and the track roughness and the layout of the track, I'm sure most of the cars out there were out of their ideal operating window. Did that affect the picking order? It's possible.
"Does it change anything in the way we approach the next races? Not really. We will try to adapt as best as we can next, and we'll see.
“We still think that Singapore will hopefully suit us in terms of slow-speed corner performance. What the competition will do is very, very difficult to understand.
"I think we will be in the fight for the podium for the coming races, because fundamentally we have been in the fight for the podium for a number of races now: six, seven, eight. So, I think we'll be in that fight.
"Will we be in the fight for the win? I think Mercedes has always been in the fight for the win. We have seen that it's been very difficult to be consistently on par with Mercedes for everyone at all the races.”
