Max Verstappen sitting in the RB21 - Photo: Red Bull Content Pool

Good news for Verstappen: 'Red Bull can be in the fight for wins!'

21:55, 17 Oct

byKada Sarkozi

Red Bull team boss Laurent Mekies expects Red Bull to be able to fight for the victory at most circuits moving forward.

"That's fair to say that we think we have enough potential in the car now to be in the fight on most tracks going forward."

- Laurent Mekies

Mekies explained the mindset at his team is only looking at the next session, as Max Verstappen is chasing the two McLaren drivers in the standings.

He told GPblog: "The simple truth inside the team, we simply take it race by race.

"Actually, we only talk about next session. That's where the intensity goes to and then you know things will come as a result of that.

"You don't change your approach to racing because of where you stand in the championships or because of where your chances stand.

"You go out there, it's difficult enough to feel on Sunday night that you have got everything out of your car for that weekend and that's where everyone's energy is focused on."

Mekies talking to Verstappen and Helmut Marko - Photo: Red Bull Content Pool

Verstappen said a day ago that he has a 50-50 chance of winning his fifth title in a row: either he wins it or not. However, Mekies did not quantify how much chance does the Dutchman has.

He continued: "No, I won't put a number on it. I don't think it changed anything to the way we are going racing. We love pure racing.

"We go to a race weekend like here in Austin and there is probably four teams that can win the race on Sunday and it's going to be down to the last half a tenth, a tenth between making pole or being third row and only scoring very little points. So we are focused on that and the percentage really doesn't change much for us."

Max Verstappen driving the RB21 at COTA - Photo: Race Pictures

Red Bull can battle for victories moving forward

After a difficult stint for Red Bull during the middle part of the season, Verstappen has finished at least second at every Grand Prix since the summer break.

With the latest updates introduced in Singapore, Mekies explained that at most weekends, the Austrians can fight for the victory.

He explained: "That's fair to say that we think we have enough potential in the car now to be in the fight on most tracks going forward.

"Now it doesn't mean that we will be able to win but it probably means that if going back to your first question, if we do get everything out of the car if we extract everything out of the car on a given track then we think we will be able to fight for the win.

"It doesn't mean that we are able to do that every race weekend, it doesn't mean that we won't get beaten by by Toto [Wolff], Zak [Brown] or Fred [Vasseur] on any of the race weekend but it means that we should be in that group that fights for the win."

Verstappen set the fifth fastest time in the only free practice session at the Circuit of the Americas. The day continues with Sprint Qualifying at 22:30 BST.

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