Laurent Mekies, the team principal of Red Bull Racing, has revealed that the outfit is already fielding inquiries from several "good drivers" who are curious about possible future positions within the squad. Despite these overtures, Mekies remains confident that the team will continue to improve its performance enough to retain Max Verstappen as its lead driver.
As the Formula 1 calendar heads toward the last race before the summer hiatus – the Hungarian Grand Prix at the Hungaroring – the long‑term outlook for Verstappen at Red Bull remains a hot topic. Verstappen is currently bound to the team until the close of the 2028 season, but his contract contains performance‑related clauses that could allow him to exit at the end of the 2024 campaign. Reports suggest he has until October to decide whether to trigger that clause and walk away. Last month, rumors surfaced that Verstappen’s representatives had opened talks with McLaren.
However, McLaren boss Zak Brown quickly clarified that his team already has a full driver line‑up with Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri, leaving little room for a new addition. Similarly, the driver rosters at Mercedes and Ferrari are locked in, which means that if Verstappen opts to stay in Formula 1 beyond 2024 but not with Red Bull, his options for a short‑term move appear limited until at least 2027.
In a post‑race interview with Sky Sports F1 at the Belgian Grand Prix, Mekies was asked whether Red Bull itself had been approached by drivers from other teams. He responded that the situation works both ways: "It's completely natural that Max gets calls from everyone because he's the best driver in the world, and equally, if you are a top team, you are going to get calls from many of these good drivers around as well.
That's natural." When pressed about whether such speculation distracts the team, Mekies dismissed the idea. His focus, he said, is on extracting the maximum performance from the RB23 chassis and keeping the world‑class driver pairing of Max Verstappen and the promising French rookie Isack Hadjar intact. "That is the ideal combination for us, and we will do everything we can to preserve it," he added. Mekies also stressed that Red Bull is making steady progress toward narrowing the remaining performance gap to the very front of the grid.
Since a major aerodynamic upgrade introduced at the Austrian Grand Prix three races ago, Verstappen has secured podium finishes in two of the last three events, despite a frustrating spin at Silverstone caused by a rear‑wing failure. Hadjar, meanwhile, impressed by climbing from 21st on the grid to finish sixth in Belgium, extending his streak of top‑six results to six consecutive races.
"All we need to do is continue to progress with the car," Mekies explained. "We started the season a little over a second off the pace, which was expected given the late‑season title push last year and the challenges of the new power unit regulations. Since then we have trimmed that deficit to the last two or three tenths, and that is where our focus now lies." He acknowledged that being a second slower than the leading cars can be frustrating for both drivers and the team, but he believes that closing those final tenths is achievable through collective effort.
"When you are one second away, the drivers get frustrated, Max gets frustrated. We know that's not the position we want to stay in. The best way to close the gap is to chase those last two or three tenths, and that's what everyone is concentrating on," he said. Red Bull has undergone a period of transition over the past two years, with several key personnel from its recent championship eras departing.
Notably, Verstappen’s race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase is set to join McLaren no later than 2028. Despite these changes, Mekies insists that the core objective remains unchanged: winning. "Red Bull Racing has only one goal – to win – and that aligns perfectly with Max’s own ambition," Mekies asserted.
"It's not about proving we can win; we are here to win. The same group that orchestrated the remarkable turnaround last year is still here, and they have already shaved almost a second off our rivals. Now we are in the hardcore phase, fighting for those final tenths, which are the hardest to extract.
The answer is simple: we keep working together as a united team, and the results will follow." Looking ahead, the Hungarian Grand Prix will be the next test of Red Bull's progress. Every session will be broadcast live on Sky Sports F1, with streaming options available through NOW. As the team strives to fine‑tune the RB23 and solidify its driver lineup, the question of Verstappen’s long‑term future will likely remain a background narrative, while the immediate focus is on delivering the speed needed to stay ahead of the competition.
In summary, while Red Bull is fielding interest from other talented drivers, the primary concern for Laurent Mekies is to keep the car developing, maintain the Verstappen‑Hadjar partnership, and continue the relentless pursuit of those elusive final tenths that separate victory from the rest of the pack.