Mekies delivers verdict Verstappen won't want to hear on Red Bull upgrades

Andrea Stella, team principal of rivals McLaren, believes there is still a lot of lap time to be gained by the top teams until the end of the season. During the race weekend in Hungary, eventually won by world champion Lando Norris, the Italian hinted there is as much as half a second in lap time still up for grabs with targeted updates. According to Stella, these are fairly obvious improvements for top teams. “Low-hanging fruit,” were the words used by the McLaren boss.

Whether Mercedes, Ferrari, McLaren, and Red Bull Racing can indeed add extra performance to their cars depends on several factors. First, there is the budget cap, as it is not permitted to spend unlimited amounts of money. In addition, teams are increasingly shifting their focus to 2027 and the car that will line up on the grid then.

Red Bull Racing, among others, therefore faces a choice: deploy money and personnel now to upgrade the RB22, or focus on next year. Max Verstappen would surely prefer to see adjustments made to the current car for as long as possible, but listening to Laurent Mekies, that seems like wishful thinking.

After a question from GPblog about short-term plans, the Frenchman said: "At some stage we'll need to make a call on the balance between this year and next year. And I expect that to happen earlier than what we have done last year, especially as the regulations are how they are. So we will decide."

Mekies added that Red Bull has made an enormous development push in recent months, despite the already existing development potential on the cars of Verstappen and Isack Hadjar. "As far as we are concerned, we have brought a huge amount of development to the car between race one and here in order to try to correct as soon as possible the large deficit we had initially.

"And it’s difficult to imagine that we will continue at that rhythm, but we nonetheless need to see what is the best way to try and close these last three tenths," said Mekies, who did not indicate when Red Bull would bring the next update package.

Andrea Stella understands the challenges his counterpart at Red Bull has, since McLaren has to make similar choices. "In our approach to the budget cap, we knew that 2026 would have been not much about the starting point but more about the race to upgrade the car." Andrea Stella explained to, among others, GPblog.

It all leads to the same dilemma Red Bull has. "The allowance you have for next year can be used, but obviously, you need to be careful that you don't need this money for the modifications that will have to be applied.

"Because it's not only the budget that is a limitation. You have limitations from a design point of view, or which car do you put in the wind tunnel: next year's car or this year's car? A part of this answer depends on where you are shifting your focus, this season season, or entirely on the next," Stella concluded.