Max Verstappen on the podium at COTA. Photo: Race Pictures

Mekies: Verstappen is at “the heart of the project”

09:33, 23 Oct

Updated: 11:21, 23 Oct

byDrew Murphy

Red Bull team principal Laurent Mekies is keen to ensure that Max Verstappen is front and centre of Red Bull Racing now and moving forward.

“It’s one group, and as we say, Max is not sitting outside of the project, watching the project. He’s at the heart of the project.”

- Laurent Mekies

Four race weekends ago, Verstappen was 104 points behind leader Oscar Piastri, now the gap is just 40 points.

Winning three of the last four Grand Prix, Verstappen and Red Bull have a belief that they can win the Drivers' Championship.

McLaren team principal, Andrea Stella, claimed that Verstappen is the fastest on track and will be on all remaining tracks in the season.

Speaking to GPblog, in response to Stella and whether the difference is down to Verstapen, Mekies said: “We don’t separate Max and the car and the team.

“It’s one group, and as we say, Max is not sitting outside of the project, watching the project.

“He’s at the heart of the project.”

max-verstappen-hugging-helmut-marko-post-usgp

Max Verstappen celebrates his United States Grand Prix win with Helmut Marko. Photo: RacePictures

Is Red Bull in pole position?

With all the momentum of winning three out the last four and the recent performances from the constructor champions McLaren, many will argue that Verstappen and Red Bull are in a great position to leap frog their rivals.

Mekies however was quick to downplay the label as being the favourites for the title.

He said: “We do not feel we are in a dominant position, but we certainly feel that we have cancelled out a large part of the deficit we had in the first part of the season.

“Now it's down to the last details, but you don't get me wrong, even on a weekend like today, there will be things we can learn, there will be things that we didn't get fully right.

“And that's where our focus, that's where our intensity goes, analysing our data and challenging each other, because that's what we do, and getting the car in the best possible shape for Mexico."

Can Tsunoda help Verstappen to his fifth straight title?

Verstappen has won most of his four drivers titles without the help of a consistent team mate, this time around Red Bull will be hoping Tsunoda can play more of a role in bringing the glory to Verstappen.

Mekies added: “I think there is a role, A, because there is still a Constructor Championship discussion, obviously not for the win, but for those aspects. So we need a Yuki spot.

“And B, the faster Yuki is, the more we can split the test across the car.

“We told you a couple of times this weekend, we test this with that car, we test this with the other car. So it's important for us to have a very fast Yuki.

“And in terms of sporting situations and battling and strategy, it is also possible that with Yuki picking up, we can at some stage be in a position where we battle two against two.”

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