Laurent Mekies isn’t buying the idea that Max Verstappen is about to slam the door on Formula 1 because the sport has rewritten its rulebook for 2026.
Speaking in Bahrain during pre-season running, the Red Bull boss brushed aside the familiar speculation that Verstappen’s increasingly pointed criticism of the new-generation cars could morph into an early exit. “Zero concern,” Mekies said when asked directly whether Red Bull fears its four-time world champion might walk away.
That matters because Verstappen hasn’t exactly been subtle. He’s been warning about where F1 is heading since 2023, and last week he cranked the volume up again, describing the 2026 concept as “Formula E on steroids” and branding the cars “anti-racing”. He also reminded everyone — not for the first time — that he’s got plenty of interests beyond grand prix weekends and that he’s “exploring other things outside of Formula 1 to have fun at.”
In a paddock that lives on reading tea leaves, those are the kind of lines that would normally get executives glancing nervously at contract clauses. Mekies, though, framed Verstappen’s reaction as something closer to a natural first shock at just how different the new machinery feels, rather than the start of a divorce.
He pointed to their internal experience of jumping between the ’25 and ’26 car models in the simulator last year, where the step change was so big Verstappen essentially decided it was more productive to park the 2026 discussion and focus on extracting performance from the current direction. Mekies didn’t present that as a tantrum — more a rational decision from a driver who knows exactly where his time is best spent.
“The reality is that the challenge of these regulations are massive,” Mekies said. “They are massive for the teams, they are massive for the power unit manufacturers, they are massive for the drivers as well.”
That’s the subtext Red Bull wants out there: everyone’s suffering, everyone’s adapting, and Verstappen’s bluntness is part of the process rather than a threat. Mekies even went a step further, effectively betting on Verstappen’s competitive instincts to turn irritation into expertise.
In Mekies’ view, once the sport fully commits to the new era — 50 per cent electrification, sustainable fuels and active aerodynamics — Verstappen will do what he’s always done when the parameters shift: work it out quicker than the rest. Red Bull believes the same obsessive precision that made him lethal under the previous rules will translate into mastering the “technicalities and tricks” of the next ones.
It’s a neat reframing. Verstappen’s criticisms are interpreted not as rejection, but as early-stage debugging from a driver with a finely tuned sense of what feels right in a racing car. And if Red Bull can keep him engaged by making the new package something to conquer rather than tolerate, the “will he quit?” storyline loses oxygen.
Verstappen, for his part, attempted to clarify what he meant with the Formula E comparison when speaking in Bahrain. Asked whether 2026’s battery-management demands might make it easier for Formula E drivers to jump across to F1, Verstappen didn’t entertain it.
“Let’s hope not,” he said. And then came the more revealing point: his pushback isn’t really about driver talent — he acknowledged there are “a lot of good drivers” who could perform — it’s about identity. He doesn’t want F1 drifting towards Formula E’s energy-management flavour, however exaggerated his earlier phrasing may have sounded.
“I want us to actually stay away from that and be Formula 1,” Verstappen said. His prescription was blunt: don’t increase the battery emphasis; “actually get rid of that and focus on a nice engine,” and let Formula E remain its own thing.
That doesn’t mean Verstappen’s dismissive of Formula E as a category — he even noted he’s heard from friends that the latest FE car is “a really cool car.” But he’s drawing a cultural line: F1 should lead with its own character rather than borrowing the feel of another championship.
The irony is that, even as he pushes back against the direction of travel, Verstappen’s wider racing life is expanding. He took part in endurance events at the Nürburgring last year and has more extra-curricular plans lined up for 2026. That only feeds the perception that he’s at least keeping the door cracked open to a life beyond F1.
For Red Bull, then, the messaging is clear. Verstappen can complain — loudly — and still be all-in. Mekies is effectively daring the paddock to stop confusing dissatisfaction with disinterest.
Whether that holds once the new cars are no longer simulator curiosities but the daily reality is another question. But for now, Red Bull is projecting certainty: Verstappen isn’t going anywhere, and if 2026 is as complicated as everyone expects, they’re counting on him to be the one who turns that complexity into an advantage.
