Mekies: Red Bull’s Singapore answer shows RB21 now works everywhere
Singapore has a habit of exposing weaknesses. This time, Red Bull walked away feeling vindicated. Max Verstappen’s run to second at Marina Bay wasn’t perfect — not with the brake snappiness and a balance he likened to “a handbrake” at points — but it was exactly the signal Laurent Mekies wanted to send: the RB21 now has pace across the full downforce range.
After back-to-back wins at Monza and Baku, Verstappen arrived with momentum built on low-drag efficiency. Singapore is the opposite: high downforce, traction zones, and no hiding. Historically, it’s been a Red Bull bogey track — the only blemish on their record-shattering 2023. This time, they were in the fight from lights out to chequered flag.
“For us, being able to fight for the win means a lot after Monza and Baku, which are very different,” Mekies said. “You never know until you come to a high-downforce track. We were in the right rhythm from Friday, very close to pole, and a few seconds off George in the race. It means what we’ve unlocked is not only low-downforce specific.”
George Russell and Mercedes had the final say in both qualifying and the race, but Verstappen’s P2 — ahead of Lando Norris — carried more value than the points alone. Red Bull brought two small revisions to the RB21 and, while minor on paper, they mattered here. The car looked compliant across the Singapore compromise: one-lap bite without sacrificing race stability, good traction phases even as tyre life ebbed away.
It could’ve been more straightforward if Red Bull’s gamble at the start had come off. Rain a few hours before the race left a ribbon of uncertainty along the racing line. Red Bull rolled the dice with softs for Verstappen to attack Russell off the line. It didn’t stick, and the call shaped the afternoon.
“Tricky,” Mekies admitted. “Because nobody tried slicks going to the grid — everyone was on inters. We felt the soft was the only way to have a shot at George and maybe gain something in the opening laps with the conditions. As it turned out, the track was a bit drier than expected, and we couldn’t capitalise.”
The cost came later. The softs forced Verstappen to stretch the first stint to hold the one-stop against the medium runners, then commit early to hards and defend with older tyres. That’s when the radio lit up with the “handbrake” complaint, Verstappen juggling rear stability while keeping Norris at arm’s length.
“In terms of a single issue, I can’t point to one thing,” Mekies said. “Starting on the soft exposed us to more deg and made the car tougher to handle. Then, after the early stop, Max pushed hard to close the gap and spent most of the race defending on older tyres. It was an aggressive choice to go for the win — and he did a great job to bring it back in second despite Lando’s pressure. Underneath that, yes, there are a few things to work on, but I’d qualify them as lower magnitude.”
The takeaway, though, wasn’t about tyres. It was about correlation. Singapore was Red Bull’s litmus test after that summer step. The stopwatch says the upgrade path is real, and the team’s confidence shows it.
Now the calendar swings back to McLaren country. Austin and Mexico are packed with the mid-speed corners where McLaren has been sharpest this year. Oscar Piastri, who leads the championship by 63 points over Verstappen, has made hay at exactly those types of venues — and McLaren’s strengths were visible even here. “Turn 5, Turn 9, they were very strong all weekend,” Mekies noted. “You have a lot of those in Austin and Mexico. We’ll take it race by race.”
That’s the tone at Red Bull: pragmatic, purposeful, and a little encouraged. Singapore was supposed to be the ambush. Instead, they matched Mercedes over the long run, kept McLaren behind, and proved their car isn’t a one-trick pony. If you’re tracking the title chase, that matters.
Verstappen still needs to chip away at Piastri’s advantage, and McLaren won’t be feeling charitable on the next two stops. But Red Bull’s Sunday in Singapore suggests the RB21’s window is widening at exactly the right moment. On a circuit that once exposed their soft underbelly, they had the tools to fight for the win. That alone changes the conversation.
