Red Bull team principal Laurent Mekies has played down suggestions his star driver Max Verstappen could walk away from F1, saying the four-time champion will be much happier once he has a more competitive car.
After finishing eighth at Sunday's Japanese Grand Prix, Verstappen admitted he was weighing up his future in the sport despite having a Red Bull contract until the end of 2028.
The 28-year-old said it was not a reaction to Red Bull's early struggles this year, but instead his lack of enthusiasm for the style of racing under F1's new regulations.
"Of course I try to adapt to it, but it's not nice the way you have to race," Verstappen said. "It's really anti-driving. Then at one point, yeah, it's just not what I want to do."
Although Verstappen's latest quotes were not put directly to Mekies, who was speaking in the paddock at a similar time to his driver, he played down suggestions the four-time champion would leave F1 at the end of 2026.
"We are having zero discussions about those aspects," Mekies said on Sunday evening in Japan. "We have a lot of work to do, but I'm sure by the time we give him a fast car, he will be a much happier Max.
"And by the time we give him a car that he can push and make the difference with, he will also be a happier Max. So, honestly, that's 100% of our discussions right now, is that.
"And as per the regs, as you know, they are coming with some good aspects and more tricky aspects. And as a sport, with the other teams, we will meet in the break to see how we can tweak them to make things better."
Max Verstappen chats to Red Bull boss Laurent Mekies during Friday's practice day in Japan. Mark Sutton - Formula 1/Formula 1 via Getty Images
Mekies admitted Red Bull had slipped to fourth place overall behind Mercedes, Ferrari and McLaren, and that the situation now looked worse as the gap to third had widened since the opening round in Australia.
"There is nothing to be happy about today, but in terms of overall gap to the competitions, it looked not too dissimilar to the Melbourne pictures in terms of one second to the best guy, half a second to the best Ferrari. But now, McLaren is at that same level. So, we are a distant fourth. That's the reality," he said."
"And I think it's a combination of underlying performance, Melbourne or here. So, some more work we need to do. And a layer of us not being able to extract enough from the package and to give something Max can push with.
"And I'm not suggesting that it's set up tuning. I'm just saying there is something we are wrestling with, with that car that adds to our underlying lack of performance. Now, trying to solve this sort of complex issues and trying to understand complex limitations is our core business.
"So, as much as it feels bad when you are at the back of the top teams like now, that's precisely what the whole company is set up to do, to get to the bottom of complex limitations like that and nail them, bring development that can mitigate them and improve. And it feels bad now, but I have full confidence that that's exactly what our team is very good at."
Mekies said Verstappen's frustrations around the new regulations were felt by teams and drivers up and down the grid and would be a priority for the sport to address in the month-long gap before the next round in Miami.
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"I mean, if there is one thing we all agree, I think, all teams and sport, FIA, F1 and the drivers, is that I think we all would like to see qualifying to be a flat-out qualifying or as close as possible to flat-out qualifying," he said. "So, it's the first thing we are as a sport trying to focus on.
"And what will happen then is that once you improve or once you get to an extent to have flat-out qualifying, you will automatically have a race with potentially a bit less gaming or the level of gaming in the race you can probably adjust.
"And there is very different opinions in the pit lane on that level. But I think the most important is that we get closer to flat-out qualifying and that's what as a sport we try to achieve when we meet.
"Personally, I think the focus should be on how to sort it properly for 2027. Because we are still in time to do enough if we want to address that for 2027 and have enough flat-out qualifying in 2027. And then I'm sure there is a number of small things that we can do in 2026."