Mekies fully aligns with Verstappen and emphasizes: 'That's where Max surprised everyone'.

After a challenging weekend at the Hungaroring - where Max Verstappen could not advance beyond the 8th in qualification and ended the F1 race in ninth place - the Dutchman sounded resigned about his chances this year. He said to GPBlog and others, "Of course, the focus for everyone is already a lot of us on to 26."

Mekies stresses that the track in Hungary does not particularly suit the RB21 and that this result probably is not representative for the rest of the season. "It was a tough weekend," he stated. "I don't think what you see this weekend represents where the car is at all. Whether we accept the fact that we are probably not very strong on track right here."

Verstappen did not rule out that Red Bull could still win races and pointed out the two victories he already achieved this year. Mekies fully agrees. "No question, the McLarens are faster. But look at Spa, Max was able to fight on Saturday and surprise everyone in the sprint. So let's see. The season is still very long."

Even if further development of the car stagnates, Mekies believes that progress remains possible. "Even if car development is going to heavily slow down or is going to be minimum from now on, we still have a lot of things we can learn, as this weekend showed. And through that, as difficult and as uncomfortable as it is, fundamentally you learn through these sort of weekends."

"Better to have them early on. We will learn, and if we are able to extract a bit more of the car, such as we can like today, such as we can like today, then hopefully we can put up a bit of a fight." says the Red Bull team boss.