Red Bull has been urged not to put too much pressure on Laurent Mekies as he settles into his new roles as team boss and CEO.<\/p>\n
Following the axing of Christian Horner from his leadership roles at Red Bull Racing, his successor, Laurent Mekies, is settling into life overseeing an expected front-running team.<\/p>\n
Guenther Steiner: Red Bull wanted to reorganise<\/p>\n
Horner was removed from his operational duties at Red Bull two days after the British Grand Prix, with parent company Red Bull GmbH replacing him with former Racing Bulls team boss Laurent Mekies \u2013 himself a hire overseen by Horner within the Red Bull organisation at the end of 2023.<\/p>\n
This week, PlanetF1.com revealed<\/a>\u00a0Red Bull has removed Horner as a director of Red Bull Racing<\/a>, Red Bull Powertrains, Red Bull Advanced Technologies and Red Bull Advanced Services, as well as the Red Bull Technology holding company.<\/p>\n However, while Mekies has been given control of the race team, he has not been appointed director for any of the aforementioned companies, with Red Bull GmbH\u2019s HR director, Stefan Salzer, appointed as a director at the F1 team and for the holding company.<\/p>\n One man familiar with what it feels like to be removed from a long-term F1 team leadership role is Guenther Steiner, who was a contemporary of Horner for 10 years as he led the burgeoning Haas squad through its inception and onto the grid for the first decade of competition.<\/p>\n Steiner parted ways with Haas at the start of 2024, although he has maintained an active presence in the F1 paddock as a widely-regarded pundit and broadcaster.<\/p>\n Asked whether he believes Red Bull should have focused on continuity and allowed Horner to remain at the helm of the team he had led to all of its world championship wins over the past two decades, Steiner said, \u201cThe unrest within the team was nothing new. It had been building up for over a year and a half, with new issues cropping up all the time. And at some point, the decision was made: it\u2019s time to restore calm.<\/p>\n \u201cThe team\u2019s performance is no longer what it used to be, Max Verstappen is unhappy, and of course, you want to keep him happy.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s why Red Bull wants to reorganise.\u201d<\/p>\n Shortly after the confirmation of Horner\u2019s axing came reassurance from Verstappen that he is committed to staying with Milton Keynes for the F1 2026 championship. However, question marks over just how competitive Red Bull will be under the new regulation set, in which the company also enters its first F1 power unit after the establishment of Red Bull Powertrains, means that all eyes will be on Verstappen\u2019s future career decisions for 2027.<\/p>\n Overseeing the attempts to get back to the top will be Mekies, who is yet to prove himself at this level in Formula 1, having only become a team boss for the first time in 2024 \u2013 his previous experience being that of an engineer at Toro Rosso, and being sporting director at Ferrari.<\/p>\n There\u2019s no doubt that Red Bull faces a steep hill back to the forefront of F1, with the RB21 having gone off the boil, and Mekies having to find his feet in leadership of his new team just a few months out from a major regulations change.<\/p>\n It\u2019s this steep learning curve upon which Mekies is embarking that should mean he isn\u2019t put under immediate pressure to succeed, Steiner said.<\/p>\n \u201cI just hope they don\u2019t put too much pressure on Laurent Mekies. He\u2019s not a magician, after all,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cIt can take years [to rebuild].\u201d<\/p>\n It\u2019s believed that, shortly before his firing, Horner had indicated internally that the path back to the top for Red Bull could take upwards of three years, and Steiner said Mekies will bear the brunt of the responsibility to find the right people to help rebuild the organisation\u2019s competitiveness.<\/p>\n \u201cRed Bull is currently on a downward trajectory rather than an upward one. Mekies has a huge job ahead of him,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cGood people have left and spread out to other teams. Now he has to try to attract new top talent, and that\u2019s difficult.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat\u2019s more, Red Bull is building its own engine with Ford. That\u2019s a huge project.\u201d<\/p>\n More on Max Verstappen and Red Bull<\/p>\n \ud83d\udc49\u00a0Max Verstappen car collection: What supercars does the F1 World Champion own?<\/a><\/p>\n