Following Verstappen’s victory in Singapore: Team principal Mekies speaks of ‘Max magic’

October 2026 in Formula 1 has been all about Max Verstappen: victory from pole position at the Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia, victory from pole in the first sprint race in Singapore, and victory from pole at the Singapore Grand Prix.

Verstappen has thus crowned his 250th Grand Prix weekend; the Dutchman and his Red Bull Racing car have finally hit their stride.

On his tenth attempt, Max claimed his first victory in the Singapore night race – his 73rd Grand Prix win and his 136th F1 podium finish.

For the Red Bull Racing team, this is their fifth victory in Singapore and their 132nd Grand Prix triumph overall. RBR team principal Laurent Mekies is clearly very satisfied in his first interview following the rather uneventful race.

The 49-year-old Frenchman said: “We were quick here from the very first lap on Friday. Max was virtually untouchable at the crucial moments.”

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“Today he proved once again that he’s in a class of his own, because the conditions were different to Friday and Saturday – you had to adapt to the medium and soft tyres over the long run.”

“But Max managed to still have reserves left at every stage of the race and pull away from his rivals.”

“I find it very impressive how the team has managed to extract so much performance from the car over the past few weeks and months.”

“We know what magic Max can conjure up on the track, but today he took it a step further. He hadn’t won this race before, and he’s now rectified that in style.”

“It was clear to us that Ferrari, with Charles Leclerc, would try the opposite of what we were doing strategically. We didn’t want to bring Max in for a pit stop because we would have lost position on the track, and everyone knows how difficult overtaking is in Singapore.”

“So we decided to keep Verstappen out on the track. We knew this wouldn’t be comfortable for Max. But it all worked out fine.”

“We’ve now been quick on a whole range of track layouts – here, in Baku, and at Sepang. So I believe we should also be in with a chance of winning on other circuits. But it will all depend on what further improvements our rivals make to their cars.”