Laurent Mekies has moved to shut down the latest wave of suspicion around Red Bull and Racing Bulls, but the timing ensures the question will follow both teams into the Austrian Grand Prix weekend.
The Red Bull team principal has rejected suggestions that the two Red Bull-owned Formula 1 outfits could be using their relationship to create a sporting advantage, after rival figures again raised concerns about multi-team ownership and on-track independence.
According to Crash.net, Mekies said the teams must race independently regardless of shared ownership, power units or supplied parts. Motorsport Week also reported Mekies’ denial after fresh scrutiny from Red Bull’s rivals.
Why the Red Bull question has not gone away
This is not an abstract governance debate anymore. Red Bull’s senior team has spent much of 2026 trying to recover ground, while Racing Bulls has increasingly found itself in the same competitive traffic as the parent operation. That makes every overtake, pit call and personnel move easier for rivals to frame as part of a bigger structural problem.
The Miami example has been central to the latest noise, with Max Verstappen’s passage past Liam Lawson used by critics as a reference point for how sister-team relationships can look from the outside. ReadMotorsport has already covered how Lawson’s own Red Bull verdict reopened the second-seat debate, and this fresh denial widens the issue from one driver’s career path to the wider credibility of Red Bull’s two-team model.
Mekies’ defence rests on compliance and common sense. He argued that Red Bull would be foolish to do anything incompatible with the regulations when the topic already carries so much attention. That line is logical, but it does not remove the optics problem: Formula 1’s field is now tight enough that even routine interactions between related teams are picked apart.
Austria gives the issue a live edge
That matters before Austria because Red Bull is already under pressure to prove that its home-race upgrade can deliver something tangible. The team’s Red Bull Ring weekend had already been framed as a reality check for Verstappen and the RB22, while Racing Bulls’ recent points form has kept it relevant in the midfield fight after Barcelona left Alpine under fresh pressure.
The problem for Red Bull is that denials rarely close a debate built on trust. Mekies may have answered the allegation firmly, but Austria now gives the paddock another live stage on which every Red Bull-Racing Bulls exchange will be watched a little more closely.
