Red Bull: Max Verstappen is most expensive but also “best sensor we have in the car”

Under Laurent Mekies, who took over mid-season after Christian Horner’s dismissal, the Red Bull Formula 1 team came close to completing a remarkable comeback.

A significant part of that turnaround can be explained by the team finally managing to extract performance from the RB21, in part by continuing to develop the car longer than many rivals.

Another key factor has been the consistency of the man behind the wheel: Max Verstappen. The four-time world champion says he delivered the best season of his F1 career so far, and stood on the podium at every race weekend after the summer break.

“We all know Max, but he still blows you away”

In an end-of-year interview with selected media, including Motorsport.com, Mekies explained that Verstappen has impressed him even more than he anticipated before joining the Milton Keynes-based squad.

“As much as we have spent, all of us, too many years in Formula 1 and have seen Max getting unbelievable achievements, all I can tell you is that when you get the chance to work on his side of the paddock, you still get blown away,” said the Frenchman.

According to Mekies, that’s even more related to what Verstappen does outside the car instead of in it. “Obviously you guys hear a lot of what is said over the radio, but you don't hear everything,” he said. "So the quality of his technical feedback and the level of sensitivity that he has in the car [is very impressive].”

Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing, Laurent Mekies, Red Bull Racing Team Principal

Photo by: Mark Thompson / Getty Images

“We used to have this joke inside the team where we'd just say that he's the best sensor we have in the car. Arguably also the most expensive, but that's another question!,” Mekies laughed. And indeed, the last part is correct as well, as according to Forbes Verstappen was once again the highest-paid F1 driver in 2025.

“He lives motorsport day and night”

Besides the technical understanding and feedback to the team, Mekies is equally impressed by Verstappen’s dedication to the industry.

“The guy lives motorsport day and night, literally day and night,” said the Red Bull boss. “Probably more than any of us, he is motorsport in some respect.

“He's not escaping from any meetings to go and do something else, but he's completely merging it. Between the races he's doing his sim racing, probably with somewhere in his mind the things that he can still learn or improve on his driving, or the preparations for the next race. 

“If he has a free weekend, he goes racing somewhere else with GT3 cars. That's something that looks completely unreal from our side, or as a matter of fact, is unreal.”

The 48-year-old emphasised that he has seen Verstappen’s involvement the most when the team was going through a difficult period midway through the 2025 campaign.

“He does that with the capacity to fully immerse himself in the project, not to judge it from outside,” he said. “But trying to find the right keys to make sure that we all push in the same direction, and to make sure that we all appreciate what he's trying to tell us with the communications.”