Red Bull: Developing RB21 further won’t “compromise” 2026 F1 car

Red Bull boss Laurent Mekies has denied that his team’s resurgence late in the 2025 Formula 1 season will come at the expense of a successful 2026 campaign.

The Austrian outfit has won three of the past five grands prix through world champion Max Verstappen, which is more victories than Red Bull collected across the first 15 rounds of the year.

That can be put down to upgrades Red Bull brought to Monza at the start of its current run, compared to rivals who have stopped all car development ahead of the 2026 regulation switch, with the latest car floor updates delivered in Mexico this weekend.

F1 is making changes to both car chassis and power unit for next year, with the pecking order currently unknown and Mekies is confident his team’s form is actually of benefit for 2026.

“We are doing it this way because we think for us, let alone the other guys, we think for us it's a net gain,” said Mekies on Sunday, after his team finished third and 11th at the Mexico Grand Prix.

“We validate our approaches and hence we calibrate for 2026. If we thought it would compromise it, we would not be doing it. We know it's a price to pay. We think it's reasonable and we think it's worth it.”

Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing, Laurent Mekies, Red Bull Racing Team Principal

Photo by: Zak Mauger / LAT Images via Getty Images

Red Bull’s strategy has surprised its competitors, particularly champions McLaren, as its team boss Andrea Stella reckons its 2026 project would be compromised if it did the same.

Stella hinted it might be because Red Bull is pessimistic about its chances next year, particularly as it will debut its in-house power unit, but Helmut Marko rubbished those claims.

Red Bull’s motorsport adviser used 2021-22 as an example, as the Austrian outfit heavily upgraded its car for the final year of the last regulations leading to Verstappen’s maiden title.

It was still competitive for 2022, the first year of the ground-effect era, as Verstappen romped to his second championship before claiming his third and fourth across the next two years.

Mekies echoed Marko’s thoughts, adding that Red Bull made these recent upgrades because it needed to understand more about how, until Monza, it was significantly behind McLaren.

“With regards to why we have kept developing this car, perhaps a little bit more than competitors, it's nothing to do with '26,” revealed Mekies, who replaced Christian Horner as Red Bull team principal in July.

Oscar Piastri, McLaren, Yuki Tsunoda, Red Bull Racing

Photo by: James Sutton / LAT Images via Getty Images

“It was, I think, as we have commented on a few times, if we were turning the page at the point of the season where we were very unhappy about this car, not reaching the full potential, then you would go to 2026 with a lot of questions in your head and with a lot of wishful thinking.

“We have preferred to say we invested a little bit more in this car. We tried to unlock what we felt had not worked and got a bit of performance out of it. Gave us a lot more confidence in the tools, methodologies, approaches going into 2026.

"Yes, there is of course a lot of time and energy left for that, but that's the rationale behind it. Nothing to do with PU performance whatsoever.”

Read Also:

Formula 1Red Bull delays 2026 F1 driver decisions until “around Abu Dhabi”

Formula 1Red Bull dismisses McLaren’s 2026 F1 development claim: 'Wolff said the same in 2021'

We want your opinion!

What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?

Take our 5 minute survey.

- The Motorsport.com Team