Mekies after qualifying in Zandvoort: 'Struggling to get one-lap speed'

Published on 22 August 2026 by Julien Lemmen

Laurent Mekies, team principal and CEO of Oracle Red Bull Racing, said after qualifying for the Dutch Grand Prix: ''In terms of our overall pace so far, we have been struggling since yesterday to get one-lap speed from the car on this track. We were over half a second off in Sprint Qualifying and while we found an improvement today, it wasn’t enough to be truly competitive."

Mekies continued: "Both Max and Liam did everything they could to extract the maximum from the package they had in hand. As ever, Max was right in the fight until the very last moment and Liam did a very good job indeed. However, we saw in this morning’s Sprintrace that we are in a better situation in race trim. We were closer to the cars ahead and tomorrow that means we will push really hard to fight with the guys ahead of us. I think there are seven or eight cars that can fight for the podium. We know it is difficult to overtake around here but we will do everything we can to be right in that battle."