Mekies under the microscope: How different is his leadership at Red Bull from Horner?

The fact that Laurent Mekies will remain as Red Bull team principal for longer is hardly surprising. In fact, it is one of those Formula 1 announcements that you had almost forgotten still needed to be made and that is perhaps the biggest compliment Mekies could receive, especially given that his task was far from easy.

Firstly, the Frenchman had to succeed Christian Horner, who had been the face of Red Bull in F1 for 20 years. Replacing such a big name is no easy task in itself. There are big shoes to fill, internally and externally, and that is not always the ideal moment to step in. It is seen elsewhere: just look at Manchester United, where the years following the illustrious reign of Sir Alex Ferguson have been marked by chaos.

Admittedly, Ferguson wasn’t dismissed - he retired - for the reasons that Horner was, with all the well-known events that preceded it. Every situation is different, but it merely underlines that replacing a long-serving and successful leader is anything but a straightforward task for whoever has to take over afterwards.

Moreover, Mekies did not arrive in the easiest environment in July last year. OK, the team had parted ways with Horner, but the long-running power struggle had clearly left its mark on the team. Add to that the fact that the sporting picture was not looking good either – which, according to the official explanation, was what ultimately cost Horner his job – and it paints a picture of the unsettled environment in which Mekies had to begin.

The first thing he did well was to arrive in a very modest manner and not do too much. That last part may sound strange – doing well by not doing much – but that approach has proved important. Mekies did not come in like a bull in a china shop, as he spent the first few weeks primarily observing. When he was asked in his media sessions about the changes he had made or about his influence on the team, Mekies consistently stressed that the first few weeks were not about that at all: they were about observing, meeting as many employees as possible and, above all, listening.

One sentence that kept coming back in those answers, to the point where you could almost predict it, was: “We believe that we already have the best talents in our team. I just want to make sure that they have everything they need to extract the most out of their skill sets.”

Mekies replaced Horner last year, having previously served as team boss of sister squad Racing Bulls

Photo by: Red Bull Content Pool

Of course, it helped his image that results improved not long after his arrival: Max Verstappen won the sprint at Spa and finished on the podium in every grand prix after the summer break. But in that respect, too, Mekies did the right thing: he remained modest and claimed no credit whatsoever.

At first glance, you would say that this was entirely logical, given that planning upgrades is a lengthy process and the new parts were already in the pipeline long before he took over. That said, Verstappen has recently revealed that the 2025 turnaround was not so much about new parts, but rather a breakthrough in terms of set-up and how the RB21 could be used – in a way that Red Bull had long considered impossible.

Almost everything went Red Bull’s way in the second half of 2025, and naturally it is ‘easy’ to work in those circumstances – in quotation marks, because nothing in F1 is easy – but at the beginning of this year Mekies faced genuine headwinds and had to deal with the real challenges of leading a top team.

How successful Mekies’ tenure will ultimately prove to be, and how it will compare with that of his highly successful predecessor Horner, remains to be seen, but the interim assessment is cautiously positive

The team underperformed following the regulatory overhaul, but not in the way many had expected. After all, everyone would have understood if the DM01, the first product of Red Bull-Ford Powertrains, had fallen short. But the reality was different. That engine was fine – excellent, even, according to the FIA’s measurements – but Red Bull was seriously lacking on the chassis side.

Just as everything becomes easier in good times, the snowball effect also works in the opposite direction. When performances disappoint, other forces come into play and that one inevitable question resurfaces. You can almost set your watch by it. Will he stay or will he go? In other words, Verstappen’s future once again became a major topic of discussion in the paddock.

After his contract extension was announced at Zandvoort, the Dutchman revealed that he had come much closer to retiring from F1 than to switching teams, but Mekies still had to answer questions about the endless McLaren rumours every week. Given his engineering background, it will hardly have been his favourite activity – Horner was more inclined than Mekies to use one-liners to shoot down rumours – but he nevertheless handled it in his own way.

The Mekies announcement follows the confirmation of Verstappen and Hadjar for 2027

Photo by: Mark Thompson / Getty Images

Getting Verstappen’s signature on a new deal was not solely Mekies’ achievement – such a decision is always about the overall picture – but it can still be called his most important win so far. The Frenchman often talks about building a new ‘winning cycle’ after the previous title-winning years with Sebastian Vettel and Verstappen, but to build that new cycle, it is crucial to retain one of the most important building blocks of the entire squad: the team leader behind the wheel.

Had that not worked out, Mekies would effectively have had to start his entire rebuilding process all over again, and Red Bull would have had to reinvent itself with a different driver. That said, Mekies is still dealing with a team in transition behind the scenes, not least because of Gianpiero Lambiase’s impending departure to McLaren. But steps have been taken on that front too, with the retention of Tom Hart – who had already been on his way to Williams – and the recruitment of Tom McCullough from Aston Martin.

This also reflects Mekies’ philosophy: the belief that Red Bull already has plenty of talent within the team was not just empty talk. No, it is something he has put into practice. Promoting people internally has always been plan A. It is not about bringing in a star signing to make a statement, but about taking a rational look at whether the right candidate might already be working within the team. “But we aren’t afraid to attract talent from elsewhere in the pitlane either, if we feel we need a specific skill set”, Mekies added.

How successful Mekies’ tenure will ultimately prove to be, and how it will compare with that of his highly successful predecessor Horner, remains to be seen, but the interim assessment is cautiously positive. And it is precisely that assessment that makes this contract extension a no-brainer.

Two things stand out in that assessment: his calmness and seemingly apolitical approach, perhaps linked to his engineering background – exactly in line with what Horner described as a new type of team principal in his recent interview with Autosport. And secondly, the fact that Red Bull has managed to turn around difficult starts to the season on two occasions now.

Of course, the technical team led by Pierre Wache deserves most of the credit for that, but Mekies’ contribution must surely be somewhat greater than the ‘zero percent’ he always claims. That last point, incidentally, highlights a third factor that does him no harm internally: the aforementioned modesty was welcome, especially after some within Red Bull – rightly or wrongly – felt that Horner had accumulated too much power following the death of Dietrich Mateschitz.

Just like 2025, 2026 has seen Red Bull make a slow start before mid-season upgrades cause a late resurgence

Photo by: Daniel Ceng / Anadolu via Getty Images

Despite all this, Red Bull is not there yet, and Mekies is the first to acknowledge it. The recent race wins are nice, but the bar is higher than that – and for a top team like Red Bull, the bar should be higher.

“In the same way that I refuse to take a compliment, I can guarantee that you can come to Milton Keynes tomorrow and try to give a compliment to any of our guys. They will react in the exact same way. They will look at you and tell you: What are you talking about? There was this and that was not working, and we need to get that right,” Mekies said after Verstappen’s win in Singapore.

“That's what you will get on the chassis side, that's what you will get on the PU side and that's what you will get in any of the support functions. We take the double win. We will celebrate it with the team, because it's a phenomenal achievement, but we are only focused on what is separating us from the next one.”

The objective for the five years of his contract extension is clear: to see whether the foundations now being laid really are good enough for a new ‘winning cycle’

In that respect, there is still plenty of work to do – as both Mekies and Verstappen emphasise – but calm has returned to Red Bull. And perhaps, regardless of everything happening on track, that is the most important achievement of his year and a half in charge. Mekies has helped steer the team back into calmer waters, and that was exactly what the outfit needed after an extremely turbulent period.

The way he has done so is, in a sense, a reflection of how Mekies conducts his Sunday media sessions after a race: the microphones are always neatly laid out in front of him, but the Frenchman is not one to shout things from the rooftops. Instead, he prefers to keep things calm, collected, intimate and to the point. Exactly the way he has guided Red Bull to several victories and calmer waters over the past year and a half, while also remaining calm during the more difficult times.

The objective for the five years of his contract extension is clear: to see whether the foundations now being laid really are good enough for a new ‘winning cycle’. There are no guarantees, but with Verstappen, Hadjar and Mekies all on long-term contracts, Red Bull seems to have what it had been craving so badly after the power struggle: stability and calm within the team. And that, at the very least, seems a promising start.

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Photo by: Alex Bierens de Haan / LAT Images via Getty Images