Laurent Mekies is bursting with pride for Max Verstappen after his recovery race in Australia. The Dutch world champion was able to make up no fewer than fourteen places in a car that had not previously driven under race conditions. Mekies is therefore very happy with the driver. ‘In case anyone needs reminding what an exceptional driver Max is, he delivered a fantastic performance’, said the Frenchman.
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Max Verstappen showed an impressive recovery race during the season’s opening race in Melbourne. The Dutchman started twentieth and eventually crossed the finish line in sixth. The driver received the honorary title ‘Driver of the Day’ from Formula 1 fans for it. Justifiably so, according to Red Bull team principal Laurent Mekies.
Verstappen’s performance in Australia was extra impressive because the drivers were racing the 2026 cars under race conditions for the first time at the Albert Park Circuit. “This was a very important weekend for Formula 1. The first race of a new era for the sport. After weeks of speculation, fans were treated to an exciting race at Albert Park,” Mekies told Verstappen.com. “With such a radical change in the technical regulations, some retirements were inevitable. It’s a shame that Isack (Hadjar, ed.) was one of them. Especially after he had performed so well by securing third place on the starting grid.” Verstappen’s new teammate retired on lap eleven due to problems with the RB22.
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Praise for Verstappen
However, Mekies also focuses on the positive aspects of the first weekend in which the DM01 – the first power unit developed by Red Bull – was at the start. “Looking at the positives, the other three cars with a Red Bull Ford Powertrains engine finished the race. Two even in the top ten.” Besides Verstappen, Arvid Lindblad also drove to eighth place on behalf of Racing Bulls. “And in case anyone needs reminding what an exceptional driver Max is, he delivered a fantastic performance by driving from twentieth on the grid to sixth place. We collected a lot of data this weekend that we will be able to put to good use in China in a few days. We will do that more than ever this season and this was certainly a developmental and educational race for us. We know we can always count on everyone in Milton Keynes to do everything they can to take us to the next level.”
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Read everything about the Australian GP here
