Laurent Mekis: We are missing the last tenth.

      For the Austrian stage of the championship, Red Bull Racing prepared a whole range of technical innovations, which allowed Max Verstappen to take second place. Laurent Mekies spoke highly of his driver's performance, calling yesterday's Grand Prix the team's best showing of the season.

      Laurent Mekies: "We had a great race – without a doubt, this is our best performance of the season. As we mentioned after qualifying, we made noticeable progress, but it was still difficult to quantify it at that time.

      Now we see that in terms of pace, we are very close to the level that would allow us to fight for victory on such a challenging track and in such hot weather. This is clear evidence of the work that continues at the base in Milton Keynes and how confidently Max drove at all stages of the race.

      When we presented the range of innovations, we understood that we had taken a step forward, but in qualifying, we certainly made a mistake by sending Max out on a car that wasn't in perfect condition, which led to the crash. After that, it was hard to understand whether we were losing to the leaders by one tenth, two, or three? In the end, we started only from the 5th position.

      However, during the race, there was an opportunity to realistically assess how much we had closed the gap. At the beginning of the season, our pace was over a second below the level needed to fight for wins. When we prepared the range of innovations for the Miami stage, the gap was reduced by about half a second, and one could say that now we are just missing the last tenth – which is quite good.

      To make up a second required enormous effort, and I am very grateful to everyone who works at the base in Milton Keynes. Max also deserves all kinds of praise for having performed excellently in the extreme heat, working well with the tires and taking every opportunity to achieve a good result."

      When Mekies was asked if Verstappen would have had a better chance of winning had the team chosen a more aggressive strategy, the head of Red Bull Racing replied: "The subjunctive mood doesn't help win races, so we accept the second result. It probably reflects the level we are currently at, but what's more important is that the gap in this race was the smallest of the entire season, and we will try to properly utilize the additional energy that this success brings to take the next step."