'He's taking the risk with us' – Mekies reflects on how Red Bull will keep Verstappen onboard if the team struggle in 2026

Laurent Mekies has shared an insight into how Red Bull can keep Max Verstappen onboard should the team face early struggles in 2026 as they begin manufacturing their own power units for the first time.

At the recent launch of the squad’s new livery in Detroit – a city chosen as the host location due to it being known as the United States home of Ford, the squad’s partner on Red Bull Ford Powertrains – Mekies acknowledged that there may be “a fair amount of headaches and sleepless nights” initially, adding: “We will eventually come out on top. Bear with us in the first few months.”

As such, the Team Principal was quizzed during a discussion at the Autosport Business Exchange on whether the Milton Keynes-based outfit will be able to keep Verstappen content should success not arrive in the first year of the project – to which he suggested that the Dutchman is “aware of the scale of the challenge”.

“I think we got that question pretty much every race last year!” Mekies joked. “I will expect us to get it also every race this year. But seriously, one of the many incredible things with Max is that he's not sitting outside of the project, watching what we do and judging what we do.

“He is in the project. He takes the risk with us – he's aware of the risk taking. He's aware that we take risks, as do Ford. He’s aware of the scale of the challenge. He lives and breathes motorsport, more than a large part of us.

“He is motorsport – he is day and night thinking motor racing. If it’s not Formula 1, it’s the GT3; if it’s not the GT3, it's the virtual races – whatever he comes up with next.”

Verstappen has previously admitted that, when considering his options for the future, there are “a lot of things that have to come together” should he consider making a change, with the four-time World Champion stating that “it's not only about F1”.

Pushed on what Red Bull can do to keep the 28-year-old interested and invested, Mekies answered: “You know, it's a fair point. We think Max wants a fast car, so we think the best way to make sure he wants to stay with us for as long as we can imagine is to give him a fast car, a combination of a fast chassis and a fast PU.

“As we say, we may not get that at the right level for race one, but because he understands so well motorsports, he will see the trajectories, and hopefully we can show him a strong enough trajectory that he feels that that group of people is going to produce the fastest car possible.

“And here is one of the things that will be great for people watching this season, is the amount of in-season development you are going to see. Both the chassis side and the power unit side is going to be three, four, five times more than what we have seen in the last few seasons, and so hopefully the pecking order is evolving through that.”