Laurent Mekies: New Red Bull CEO and team principal says it ‘still feels unreal’ as he replaces Christian Horner | F1 News
New Red Bull team principal Laurent Mekies says it “still feels unreal” to replace Christian Horner as he spoke for the first time since landing the role.
Mekies, who was Racing Bulls boss, is only Red Bull’s second team principal as Horner had been in charge since they joined the grid in 2005, leading them to six drivers and eight constructors’ titles.
The Frenchman began his F1 career at the Arrows team in the early 2000s before switching to Minardi, which was bought by Red Bull in 2005 and rebranded as Toro Rosso.
He joined the FIA as safety director in 2014 and deputy race director in 2017, then made the switch to Ferrari in 2018 as sporting director, and later deputy team principal, before returning to the Red Bull family at the start of 2024 as team principal at Racing Bulls.
“It still feels unreal to be here and not to see him [Horner],” said Mekies on a planned filming day for Red Bull at Silverstone on Thursday.
“It would be impossible to underestimate the size of the achievement this team has had under 20 years of Christian’s leadership.
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On The F1 Show, Ted Kravitz suggests Jos and Max Verstappen won the power struggle at Red Bull over Christian Horner, who has been sacked as team principal
“I met him 20 years ago when he was the youngest team principal in F1 and it’s unbelievable to see how he’s turned this place to the level it is now.
“That journey, the many titles and wins. Christian is also the guy, with Helmut [Marko] and Oliver {Mintzlaff] that brought me back to the Red Bull family two years ago. All the first thoughts are with him today.”
Laurent Mekies met his new Red Bull team at Silverstone on Thursday on a planned filming day using the 2025 car (Red Bull Content Pool)
Mekies: Red Bull not underestimating challenge ahead
Since dominating the 2023 season and the early stages of 2024, Red Bull have been caught and overtaken by McLaren in the pecking order.
Max Verstappen still managed to win a fourth consecutive Drivers’ Championship last year but is 69 points behind Oscar Piastri in this year’s title race.
Red Bull have had issues with their second seat for the last six years after Pierre Gasly, Alex Albon, Sergio Perez, Liam Lawson and now Yuki Tsunoda have all largely struggled as team-mates to Verstappen.
Their car advantage in 2022 and 2023 meant they won the Constructors’ Championship but the deficit between Verstappen and his team-mates has caused major problems when they have not had the best car.
Red Bull are also taking on the major challenge of creating their own engine, with the help of Ford, for next year’s regulation change, which Mekies brought up in his first interview for the team.
“I look at this team as most outside look at them, we see the very best people in the world at what they do,” he said.
“That’s what this team is, even from being a competitor previously you look at Red Bull Racing as being the sharpest team, having managed to accumulate the best talent to work together.
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Following his sacking after 20 years as team principal, Christian Horner gave an emotional goodbye to the Red Bull staff and says it was the biggest privilege of his life
“It is a privilege to join the team and the focus will be on making sure all the talented people here have what they need to perform at their best, because they are already the very best.
“We will be focussing on that and making sure the Red Bull energy is flowing through the team. We are not underestimating the challenge ahead, we will need everybody and we will go about it together and I am sure with everyone’s contributions we will tackle this challenge.”
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