Mekies holds his hands up: 'We didn't give Verstappen a car he could push with'

Verstappen finished second at the Hungarian Grand Prix. While he was never in contention for victory and crossed the line 15 seconds behind Lando Norris, the result still marked another podium for Red Bull.

According to Mekies, the team had not provided Verstappen and Hadjar with a car they could really push last weekend.

Speaking to GPblog, among others, he explained: "I think we never managed to give Max and Isack a car they could push with.

According to Mekies, however, it was an encouraging sign that only Norris was in a different league on Sunday in terms of race pace, despite the RB22's issues.

Mekies says there is work ahead for his team to identify the issues. He concluded: "We'll try to see why we are so much on the edge of the car balance, corner balance, the car performing and the car not performing. It's been hard work, certainly for the drivers, but also for the team in these last few races to keep the car in its window."

While Verstappen continues to insist that the RB22 needs to improve, Mekies confirmed in Hungary that Red Bull will further scale back its continuous development programme.

Answering a question from GPblog about the team's 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."