Mekies Defended Red Bull’s Quick Call in Verstappen-Hamilton Dispute
NXTbets Pro | Published On: September 13, 2026
Red Bull call
Red Bull made the call quickly on the opening lap of the Spanish Grand Prix in Madrid. Max Verstappen cut the corner while battling Lewis Hamilton, took evasive action into the run-off area and rejoined the track ahead of Hamilton. Red Bull then told Verstappen to give back the place he had gained, which sent Hamilton back ahead and also let Andrea Kimi Antonelli through. FIA stewards had already flagged Verstappen for potentially leaving the track and gaining an advantage, and Red Bull decided the safest move was to surrender the position at once rather than wait and risk a penalty.
Hamilton had backed out of a move into Turn 1, which set off the sequence that led Verstappen off the circuit and into the run-off. Red Bull said Verstappen had not been entitled to keep the place on Hamilton, and the pit wall moved quickly to correct the order. The team later stood by that approach, with team boss Laurent Mekies saying the immediate loss made more sense than leaving the matter in the hands of the stewards. He framed it as a race-management call, one that came with little time to weigh every option on the spot.
Verstappen radio
Verstappen did not hide his frustration. Over the radio, he complained about “f***ing Mickey Mouse racing” after being told to hand the spot back. The message captured the tone of the opening-lap dispute and the driver’s anger at having to give up ground in the middle of a tight fight. For Verstappen, the call turned a promising opening-lap gain into a reset he did not want.
Mekies defended the decision by focusing on the risk of what might have come next. He said the possible penalty could have been five seconds or 10 seconds, and that kind of punishment could have done more damage than the immediate loss of track position. He pointed to race circumstances such as a safety-car period as a place where a time penalty could have cost even more. He also said Red Bull had little time to consult race control before making the call. That pressure, he said, pushed the pit wall toward a quick judgment rather than a drawn-out argument over the first-lap incident.
Hamilton brake
Hamilton’s race later took another turn when brake problems forced him out. That left Verstappen with another chance to recover the place he had given back earlier. Red Bull had already accepted the first loss to avoid a stewards penalty, and the later Hamilton retirement changed the shape of the result. Verstappen regained the position after Hamilton’s brake issue and went on to finish second, just over four seconds behind Antonelli. Even so, he stayed angry about the earlier order, which left Red Bull defending a decision that had been made under pressure and then overtaken by events on the track.
Mekies said second place was the best result Red Bull could have expected, and the finish backed up that view. The first-lap exchange with Hamilton and the immediate call to hand back the spot set the race’s tone. Verstappen’s radio outburst, the stewards’ attention and Hamilton’s later brake failure all fed into a sequence that ended with Red Bull taking the result it could still hold.
