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Red Bull Racing have sunk to fifth in the constructors’ championship after a very difficult Chinese Grand Prix.
Team principal Laurent Mekies’ heart would have sunk after a second retirement due to a mechanical error in two races.
Isack Hadjar didn’t finish the race in Australia after starting P3, while Max Verstappen was forced to retire due to a cooling issue.
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Toto Wolff couldn’t believe what he was watching on Verstappen’s onboard camera, although the Mercedes team boss is never shy when it comes to making a dig at Red Bull.
The move to replace Christian Horner with Mekies last season was widely praised as it coincided with Verstappen’s brilliant championship fightback.
However, journalist Jon Noble noted that Mekies did something in the Chinese Grand Prix paddock that Horner never did, even at Red Bull’s lowest ebbs.
READ MORE: All you need to know about Red Bull team principal and CEO Laurent Mekies
Laurent Mekies failed to hold a press conference after the Chinese Grand Prix
Noble was in the paddock in Shanghai and recalled his experience on The Race F1 Podcast.
When it came to discussing Red Bull’s woes, Noble explained: “I thought it was also interesting tonight that, I think for the first time I can remember, and I think it’s very rarely happened, no team principal media briefing on a Sunday night.
“No mention of it happening. I think when it’s ever been cancelled in the past with Christian Horner, for example, there was always a because he had to get a flight, or a race had been red-flagged or something.
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“So, through thick and thin, Christian would be doing the briefings to run through stuff, and tonight we had nothing, not even a mention of it’s not happening because of travel reasons or logistics or something.
“So, just an interesting snippet because when teams stop speaking on the bad days, that’s not normally a good sign.”
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Laurent Mekies admits Red Bull faced the ‘worst possible scenario’ during the Chinese Grand Prix
Although Mekies failed to take questions from journalists after Sunday’s race, he didn’t hide from the fact that things did not go to plan for Red Bull in his official post-race debrief.
He explained: “The Chinese Grand Prix proved to be a very tough event for us from Friday onwards.
“Being on the back foot at the start of a Sprint weekend is the worst possible scenario, as there is really little time to catch up and get on top of any difficulties.
“We knew that just getting onto the grid in Melbourne with our own PU was a major achievement in itself, and it would have been naïve not to expect we would encounter reliability issues.
“Today, we had to retire Max because of a coolant fault. However, this was not our only issue, as overall, performance-wise, our package showed some significant shortcomings.”
An early spin for Hadjar was the last thing that Mekies would have wanted to see, and while he recovered to finish in the points, he can’t afford to make mistakes like that when Verstappen fails to finish.
It’s far too soon to suggest that he’s going to suffer the same fate as all of the Dutchman’s other teammates, but in a less competitive car than Red Bull are used to, mistakes like that simply can’t happen.
Fans weren’t happy with Verstappen’s latest comments on the new regulations, with many enjoying the racing in China.
Unfortunately, he wasn’t anywhere close to being involved in the fight for the podium before his retirement, and judging by the lack of answers Mekies gave to the press, Red Bull aren’t confident they’ll be joining that battle any time soon.
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