Laurent Mekies on Verstappen’s crash: “We’ll pull out all the stops”

A moment of shock just a few laps before the end of the Silverstone Grand Prix! Max Verstappen (Red Bull Racing) suddenly went off the track on lap 48 of 52 and ended up deep in the gravel. Fortunately, the Dutchman was caught out at Stowe, an area with plenty of run-off. Verstappen emerged unscathed – but was absolutely furious. After all, Verstappen had already crashed during qualifying at Spielberg due to a very similar-looking problem, also involving the rear wing.

Mekies: Safety is the priority

Team principal Laurent Mekies made it clear after the race: “We will do whatever is necessary to be on the safe side.” So does this mean the innovative rear wing will have to be removed again? First the Red Bull Ring, now the Silverstone Circuit – on both occasions, Verstappen was affected by a problem with this part of the car.

Mekies: “You could go back to the old design if you’d only raced with it for a few races. We’ve been racing with it since Miami, I believe. So that’s quite a few races. It’s still too early in the analysis to determine whether it’s a problem with the design or something else. But we will certainly pull out all the stops to find the cause. We have all the options available to us.”

Mekies also says of Verstappen: “He’s right not to be happy. It’s very unusual. It’s very unpleasant for a driver when the car lets him down in a high-speed corner, and that in two races in a row, even if it’s for two different reasons. And it’s also unpleasant for the team – albeit on a completely different scale – to have our driver in the gravel trap.”

Necessary measures will be taken

The French engineer makes it clear: “I have no doubt that we as a team will take the necessary measures to ensure that something like this doesn’t happen again – even though we didn’t manage to do so during the race at Silverstone – and we’re taking this as seriously as we possibly can.” Now there’s a weekend’s break before Formula 1 moves on to Spa.

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