After five weeks without a Formula 1 race, it is almost time for the Miami GP. Red Bull has mainly used the unexpected spring break to work on upgrades for the American race. According to team principal Laurent Mekies, the main goal of his team is to give Max Verstappen ‘a car from which he can get everything out,’ and his team has taken a first step forward. The Frenchman predicts that there will be ‘more and more smiles on Max’s face’ as a result.
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With only 12 World Championship points in three Grands Prix, Max Verstappen has not started the 2026 season at his usual level. The Dutchman has been struggling with the RB22 since the test days in Bahrain, and he is also not a fan of the current F1 regulations. Rumors about an early departure of Verstappen from Formula 1 have therefore been circulating for weeks. For Red Bull, the goal is clear: to give the Dutchman a car with which he can consistently push the limit.
“We have taken a step forward with a view to the new rules for Miami,” team principal Laurent Mekies tells Sky Sports. “Max is fully on board with that. Will it be enough? We have time to look together whether it will be enough or not. We are aware that our priority is to give Max a car from which he can get the utmost. This is not so much about the rules. We knew that we had given him and Isack a very difficult car in the first three races.”
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‘More and more smiles on Max’
“We have to give him a car with which he can consistently push,” the goal is clear for the Frenchman. Mekies then hopes that Verstappen’s driving skills, the ‘Max effect,’ will accelerate the further development process of the RB22. “That does not mean that Max will be fast enough for pole positions, but it does mean that he can show his ‘Max effect’ and that we can accelerate the development of that car. I have every confidence that it may not be solved before Miami, but the team will thoroughly investigate what limits us, just as they did last year. You will see more and more smiles on Max’s face.”
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