Can Red Bull now fight for wins everywhere? "It's difficult to be on par with Mercedes consistently"

Laurent Mekies says Red Bull Racing's first win of 2026 in Formula 1 is the culmination of the squad's gradual upturn in form, but felt it's too early to tell if it can now be in the mix everywhere.

From being over a second behind the frontrunners at the start of the campaign, Red Bull has gradually chipped away at its deficit with a relentless stream of upgrades. Its last such package of the 2026 campaign, which arrived in Azerbaijan, allowed Max Verstappen a chance to win on a typically difficult circuit for Red Bull, only to finish right behind winner George Russell.

But on a vastly different Sepang circuit in Malaysia, which hosted the Bahrain Grand Prix this year, Verstappen was in a class of his own aboard the RB22, taking a dominant pole which he converted into a comfortable win in a delayed, mixed weather race in Kuala Lumpur.

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"We were surprised by the pecking order in Malaysia," said team principal Mekies on Monday. "On one side, it's confirming the positive trend now with Monza, with Madrid, with Baku. We have been adding a little bit of performance at every race, which is great.

"On the other side, are there other factors that have influenced what we have seen in Malaysia? Possibly, with the extreme heat and the track roughness and the layout of the track, I'm sure most of the cars out there were out of their ideal operating window. Did that affect the picking order? It's possible.

"Does it change anything in the way we approach the next races? Not really. We will try to adapt as best as we can next and we'll see. We still think that Singapore will hopefully be suiting us in terms of slow speed corner performance. What the competition will do is very, very difficult to understand."

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

Photo by: Joe Portlock / Getty Images

Verstappen's 72nd grand prix win was extra significant as it was the first for Red Bull as a power unit manufacturer, but it also confirmed the team has shaken off its disappointing start to the current set of regulations and can now be a player at a varied range of circuits.

Having ticked off the box of a first 2026 grand prix win, Mekies is upbeat about the Milton Keynes-based squad's chances of replicating its form elsewhere, but he cautioned that no team has been able to consistently challenge Mercedes for wins week in, week out.

Red Bull is the fourth team to win races in 2026 alongside Mercedes, Ferrari and McLaren, but the latter two teams have drifted in and out of the competitive picture depending on the circuit layout and conditions.

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"I think we will be in the fight for the podium for the coming races, because fundamentally we have been in the fight for the podium for a number of races now: six, seven, eight," Mekies said. "So, I think we'll be in that fight.

"Will we be in the fight for the win? I think Mercedes has always been in the fight for the win. We have seen that it's been very difficult to be consistently [on par] with Mercedes for everyone at all the races.

"We have seen a good period for McLaren and we've seen a good period for Ferrari. So, we are concentrating on ourselves, trying to extract a bit more of the car. Will that be enough to be on every track in the last couple of races? I don't know what to say."

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