Laurent Mekies: “Of course” McLaren feeling pressure in fight against Max Verstappen

It is inevitable that Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri are feeling the “psychological effect” of a Formula 1 title battle against Max Verstappen, says Red Bull boss Laurent Mekies.

The 2025 championship will be decided at this weekend’s Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, where Norris heads into the finale 12 points above Verstappen and 16 ahead of McLaren team-mate Piastri.

Although Norris is still the favourite for a maiden crown, Verstappen is the driver in-form as the reigning, four-time world champion has won five of the eight grands prix since Red Bull transformed its season with car upgrades at Monza.

It allowed him to cut a 104-point deficit, also helped by McLaren making mistakes such as Piastri’s Baku crash, a double Vegas disqualification and its Qatar strategy blunder.

Verstappen therefore said he’d have won the title already had he been in McLaren’s car and that it’s only failings from the other side keeping him in. Norris rebuffed those claims, saying the Red Bull driver was “talking nonsense”, but Mekies agreed with the Dutchman’s sentiment.

“I'm sure there is an element when you are Max's competitor, having been on the other side of it... there is an element where you know he just never gets it wrong,” said Mekies, who has previously worked at Racing Bulls and Ferrari.

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

“This puts some pressure on you. He never gets it wrong, he never misses a start, he never misses a Turn 1. He's going to extract more out of the tyres than most people out there.

“Of course, it puts pressure on. The team has been extraordinary at strong executions, so it is true we have benefitted from our competitors' less strong executions, but please allow me to give credit to the incredible string of massively strong races, massively strong executions from the team - never got a call wrong.

“They have made some very courageous decisions more than once. Sometimes we fell, but it never stopped any of them from taking the risk. Ultimately, the executions on Sunday have been extremely, extremely strong.

“I think the combination of these two things is certainly playing in our favour. How much does it cost the competition? I don't know, but it is natural that there is a psychological effect.”

That is also because Verstappen knows exactly what to do in the high-pressure moments given his experience of championship fights, while the McLaren pair are both fighting for their first.

So Mekies revealed the approach this weekend “is exactly the same” because Verstappen’s main hope is to win at Yas Marina and have Norris finish off the podium.

Lando Norris, McLaren, Oscar Piastri, McLaren, Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing

“What we need to do in Abu Dhabi is what we needed to do here,” added Mekies in Qatar, after Verstappen took his 70th grand prix victory.

“We need to put the car in the right window. As you can see, it's not exactly straightforward every race weekend and then if we do that, Max can fight for the win.

“If he does that, then what's happening hopefully behind him is not something we can control. So really in terms of how we approach the weekend, it doesn't change anything.

“You go there, try to get our car in the sweet spot, try to give to Max a balance that he's excelling with and hopefully that puts him in the fight for the top position - we won't control what's behind.”

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