Mekies to face Max Verstappen strategy questions in Mexico as Red Bull keep review findings private
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Laurent Mekies will face the F1 media at the Mexico City Grand Prix on Friday for the first time since Red Bull promised to review Max Verstappen's failed strategy at the United States Grand Prix.
The team has not yet said publicly what the review found, or who decided to send Verstappen out on a second set of soft tyres in Austin but Mekies is set for a grilling on the subject in Mexico City.
Red Bull still have to explain the soft-tyre call
Mekies promised the review after Verstappen said his soft-soft-medium plan had not been agreed. GPblog covered that exchange in Mekies responds to Verstappen's 'not agreed' claim with clear verdict. As GPblog reported in Red Bull launches review into Max Verstappen's US GP strategy, the team has not said who made the call or how it reached the car.
Plus, I think at one point it was quite clear that the people on the harder compounds were finding a lot of grip, so I guess we also didn't really react to that.- Max Verstappen, United States GP post-race press conference
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Verstappen strikes a calmer tone before Mexico
Before the Mexico weekend, Verstappen was quoted saying: "The race in Austin was tougher than expected", before adding "but we have to take the positives from it, as we still managed to secure a podium finish." He also warned that conditions in Mexico are "completely different to those in Austin", which makes the weekend hard to predict.
Why Red Bull need a clean weekend
Verstappen went to Austin having won the previous two rounds in Malaysia and Singapore. Third place at the Circuit of the Americas was still his sixth podium in a row. He finished 17.485 seconds behind Kimi Antonelli, who now needs only two points in Mexico to become champion.
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The fight for second in the drivers' standings is much closer. Only nine points separate George Russell, Lewis Hamilton, Verstappen and Charles Leclerc, so a repeat of Austin's strategy problems would hurt. Whatever Mekies says on Friday will be the first official word on whether Red Bull have found the cause.
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