Laurent Mekies admits that a decision has yet to be taken on who will partner Max Verstappen next season.

The revolving door that was always a part of the Red Bull programme remains a feature to this day, with Liam Lawson demoted after just two races, and his replacement, Yuki Tsunoda, failing to make much of an impression.

That said, the Japanese driver's arrival has helped confirm what many have known all along, not only that the Red Bull is built around the Dutchman but that the last couple of cars have not been very good.

Consequently, while Tsunoda has struggled, Lawson and Isack Hadjar at his old team have been the source of constant surprises as the Faenza outfit gives its big sister a run for her money.

While Tsunoda is beginning to make progress, there is talk of Hadjar being promoted, and while the Japanese looks safe for the remainder of this season there is the question of 2026.

"You know, we don't think the speed can disappear, Laurent Mekies told Sky Sports. "Yuki did a very good end of last year, did a very good first part of the season.

"Of course, he has been having a rough time in the first part of the season here at this team," he admitted. "But, you know, we take it race by race.

"It was a step forward in Spa. Budapest, it being our worst weekend, probably was still very, very close in terms of gap to Max. He was a tenth and a half away from Max in qualifying, and normally if you are a tenth away from Max it's probably going to give you a front row. But in Budapest it meant being kicked out of Q1.

"He's progressing I think step by step. We are not in a rush. We have ten races to go.

"We try to do the best we can to support our drivers and we suddenly see some refreshed approach with Yuki and we try to support his progress.

"In terms of pure development, this team, as most teams are now, is now focussed to 2026," he continued, referring to the team's current struggles. "So this is true that the focus is going to move there. However, it is key for us that we use these remaining races to learn what we can learn on why this season hasn't gone the way it was supposed to go.

"There is still many things that you can use the race weekends to try and experiment. That applies to the team, that applies to the drivers and that's the work we are doing with both.

"Budapest was an outstanding low performance for us," he admitted. "Clearly we tried many, many things in the weekend but not many things seem to have worked.

"I think the key question then was, is Budapest a one-off, or is it an even bigger worry? And I think we now understand that it's probably something that is very much linked with what we've done at the track there."

As for those ten remaining races, the Frenchman insists that the focus is to battle Ferrari and Mercedes.

"We're far away, the lap time is quite punishing from what you can see," he said. "But we are there trying to get that P3 slot against the best Mercedes, the best Ferrari and perhaps a few other guys."