On the outside decking of the Red Bull hospitality unit at Silverstone, Laurent Mekies, Raymond Vermeulen and Jos Verstappen were deep in conversation.
The trio were digesting a race-ending spin for Max Verstappen at high-speed while running third in the closing laps of the British Grand Prix.
As Verstappen returned to the Red Bull motorhome and hurried up the nearby stairs to get changed, Mekies, the team principal, quickly followed to speak to his driver, parting from Vermeulen, Verstappen’s manager, and Jos, his father.
There was plenty to discuss even in the immediate aftermath of the incident. Because more worrying than the lost podium was the cause of the spin. For the second time in eight days, Verstappen had lost control due to a rear wing failure on his car, having experienced a similar problem at the end of qualifying in Austria.
Although he didn’t hit the wall this time, the car instead beaching itself in the gravel, Verstappen had turned into one of the fastest corners of the track feeling like the rear wing wasn’t attached to his car. It failed to close properly, so without that downforce and grip, he stood no chance of avoiding the spin.
“At that point, it’s super dangerous, because you can really hurt yourself two times,” Verstappen told reporters after the race. “I was lucky in Austria, I was lucky here. That’s why you get really fed up with it.”
It capped off Verstappen’s frustrating weekend. After contending for victory one week earlier in Austria, recovering from the qualifying crash to finish a close second in the race, at Silverstone he was nowhere. The fact he was even in the mix for a podium was “not deserved at all,” Verstappen said, given how badly the car had performed.
“The whole weekend I had a terrible balance, no top speed compared to the other (Red Bull) car as well in the garage,” said Verstappen. “Then the race was exactly the same, which I already predicted.”
After qualifying on Saturday, where Verstappen had lagged to seventh place, he’d bemoaned the poor balance and the lack of power he was feeling from his engine; not ideal at the best of times, but especially problematic on Silverstone’s long straights. “There’s actually no point to race like this if we keep the car the same,” Verstappen said after the session. “So we’ll have a look.”
Verstappen wanted Red Bull to make changes to his car even if it meant sacrificing seventh on the grid and starting the race from the pit lane, from where he’d join the field in last place. All he wanted was a car capable of letting him fight. But Red Bull said no, a decision Verstappen didn’t understand.
“I wanted to start from the pit lane,” he said. “They were maybe confident to fix it, which I was not.”
Mekies explained to reporters after the race that Red Bull felt Verstappen would still be better off starting seventh with an imperfect car. “I’m not completely sure that we could have been P3 on the road before the failure happened if we had started from the pit lane,” he said.
Verstappen wanted Red Bull to make changes to his car before the race. (Mark Thompson / Getty Images)
Although Mekies said the rear wing failure was slightly different to the one in Austria qualifying, he sympathized with Verstappen and acknowledged it “doesn’t make it better.” He was adamant the team would undertake a full review to ensure there was no chance of a repeat, especially heading to Spa’s high-speed corners next weekend. “We’ll do whatever is necessary,” Mekies said.
But at a time when Verstappen’s future is already in the spotlight once again, a weekend like Silverstone will have left the Dutchman and his camp with plenty to ponder.
Verstappen has made no secret of his dislike of the new generation of cars this year and their reliance on battery power. He said qualifying at Silverstone, one of the sport’s fastest and most iconic tracks, gave him “no enjoyment.” The same will likely be true of Spa, another classic. This style of F1, constantly having to think about recharging the battery and making overtakes by pressing a button, just doesn’t excite Verstappen. He wants pure, flat-out racing that’s about bravery and opportunity.
Performance needs to be added to the car — and fast — to satisfy Verstappen’s competitive hunger. But it’s about more than that to him right now.
“I just want to finish races first of all, that would be nice,” Verstappen said. “At the moment, too many things are going wrong, it’s as simple as that, not even speaking about pace.”
It’s a marked difference to the second half of last year, when Verstappen fell just two points shy of the greatest title fightback in F1 history. Red Bull found performance for its struggling car and remedied many of the issues Verstappen felt, following his feedback closely and giving him what he wanted — something that seemingly did not happen with the decision not to start from the pit lane at Silverstone.
Nine rounds into the season, Verstappen is winless and a lowly seventh in the standings, more than 100 points off the championship lead. As much as he may love the Red Bull family and project, having been immersed in it not only throughout his whole F1 career but his entire adult life, such disappointing form and these setbacks will surely test his faith.
“It would be a very zen person to be optimistic at the moment with what happened again this weekend,” Verstappen said. “I’m sorry, but it’s just like that. I need a few days, I think, to reset and try again.”
“I’m trying my best with everything,” Verstappen added. “That’s the only thing that I can do.”
Here’s what happened to Max 👇#F1 #BritishGP pic.twitter.com/X1BMh6spR9
— Formula 1 (@F1) July 5, 2026
Verstappen is contracted through to 2028 with Red Bull, but has clauses in his contract that would allow him to walk away at the end of the year if he is not within a set championship position at a certain point of the year. This is believed to be the top two, which looks incredibly unlikely based on Red Bull’s current form.
The 28-year-old has been knocking back questions about his future in recent weeks, most recently at Silverstone after it emerged his management had approached McLaren for talks. The messaging has consistently been that when he has an update to give, he’ll give it.
As things stand, there seem to be few alternatives on the grid for 2027.
McLaren CEO Zak Brown has stressed his commitment to contracted drivers Oscar Piastri and Norris. Mercedes is sewn up with Russell’s multi-year deal and Kimi Antonelli’s scintillating form. Ferrari recently extended Charles Leclerc’s contract, and Lewis Hamilton is also back to form, as well as indicating there is time to run on his agreement.
Coming off the encouraging race result in Austria, there seemed to be a flicker of positive momentum for Red Bull. But Silverstone pointed to the work that still needs to be done to keep Verstappen happy going into 2027 and beyond.
Right now, things aren’t clicking as they should at Red Bull. And until they do, it may be tough for Verstappen to rediscover his “zen,” to borrow his word of choice.
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