Mekies after Hungarian qualifying: 'Easy to slip back'

Published on 25 July 2026 by Niels Hendrix

Laurent Mekies, team principal and CEO of Oracle Red Bull Racing, said after qualifying for the Hungarian Grand Prix: “It was a tricky qualifying session for both Max and Isack, and in the end, we just didn’t have the pace to match Ferrari and McLaren today. We have been battling since yesterday to give our drivers a well-balanced car, but we haven’t really been able to extract the sort of performance that would allow us to challenge for the top positions in Qualifying.”

Mekies continued: “This is where we are, and you can see that it varies quite a bit from weekend to weekend. It’s also a reflection of how tight things are among the top teams. If you fail to get everything absolutely right, it’s very easy to slip back.”

“Tomorrow is a new challenge, though, and we will work hard to see how we can extract more than today in race conditions. The race will be long, and we expect to have to deal with tyre degradation and very high temperatures. Let’s see what sort of race pace we have, how the conditions play into it and, whether we can be in the fight for a podium again.”