Red Bull team principal Laurent Mekies has rejected Max Verstappen’s suggestion that the team has no chance of winning a Grand Prix in normal circumstances before the end of the campaign. The Dutchman finished ninth at the Hungarian Grand Prix on Sunday.

“It was a tough weekend,” Mekies said in response to Verstappen’s comments. “I don’t think what you see this weekend represents where the car is at. We accept the fact that we are probably not very strong on tracks like here, but what we have seen today was outstanding.

“So, if you look, no question McLaren are faster, but look at Spa, Max was able to fight certainly on Saturday and surprise everyone in the Sprint. So, let’s see.

“The season is still very long. Even if car development is going to heavily slow down or is pretty much going to be minimum from now on, we still have a lot of things we can learn, as this weekend showed.

“And through that, as difficult and as uncomfortable as it is, fundamentally, you learn through these sorts of weekends. So better to have them early on. We will learn, and if we are able to extract a bit more of the car, thanks to weekends like today, then hopefully we can put up a better fight.”