Red Bull 'confident' race cancellations can lead to Max Verstappen F1 exit U-turn

Red Bull chief Laurent Mekies believes Max Verstappen will be much happier when they can offer him a fast car. The Dutch racer admitted he was 'thinking' about his future in the sport after the Japanese Grand Prix.

Verstappen finished eighth at Suzuka to continue a season away from the podium for Red Bull so far. The four-time world champion's frustrations have come more from the style of racing introduced by F1's regulations, however.

"When you are in P7 or P8 and you are not enjoying the whole formula behind it, it doesn't feel natural to a racing driver," he said.

But Mekies believes that they will find Verstappen in a better place when they can improve his chances of winning a race. Red Bull plan to use the extended break offered by the cancellation of the Bahrain and Saudi Arabian Grand Prixs to find improvement.

"We have a lot of work to do," he said. "I'm sure by the time we give him a fast car, he will be a much happier Max.

"By the time we give him a car he can push and make the difference with, he will also be a happier Max. Honestly that's 100 per cent of our discussions right now.

"As per the regulations, they are coming with some good aspects and more tricky aspects and as a sport, with the other teams, we will meet in the break to see how we can tweak them to make things better."

Mekies is not expecting the team to have solved all of their issues by the time the racing calendar reaches Miami in May. "We need the time to simulate back what we see in the data into the tunnel, into our simulator, try some sensitivities and all of that we can do without racing," said Mekies.

"Does it mean you come to Miami and you have solved everything as a miracle? No, but again, am I confident that the team will get to the bottom of that understanding and start bringing improvements already in Miami. That's what we will see but only the track and the lap time will give us an indication on whether we go into the right directions.

"I don't think we should expect miracles about the amplitude of closing the gap because the is substantial but what we would like to see is to have a car where our drivers can push again, measure a gap to competitions in these conditions when we are able to push and then the rest will be pure development to the end of the year."

Despite Verstappen's frustrations with the sport, he does also have concerns over the balance of the car "This is not sustainable for us as a team. We need to work hard to understand our problems and bring improvements," he said.

"You can have a bad balance but that doesn't take away how we have to race. I commented on that already a few times. That is a limitation. A lot of drivers are speaking out on it. That's the biggest one for me.

"Of course I would like to win, but I can also accept if I'm driving P7. The way I'm driving, P7 with the systems, is not a lot of fun."