before departing late last year<\/a>.<\/p>\nLagrue\u2019s new role is considered a key part of the leadership structure at RBR with the new recruit to report directly to CEO and team principal Laurent Mekies.<\/p>\n
\u201cGwen is one of the very best talent developers in F1 and I know first-hand the expertise, leadership and passion he brings to developing young drivers,\u201d said Mekies.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Red Bull Junior Program has always been a cornerstone of Red Bull\u2019s success, and having Gwen lead it soon reflects the importance we continue to place on developing the next generation of F1 talent.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want to recognise another time today the extraordinary contribution Helmut Marko has made over more than two decades creating and leading the Junior Program.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Junior Program has become the benchmark in F1 because of his vision, commitment and ability to identify and develop exceptional talents and he deserves enormous credit for that.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs we continue to build the next chapter of Oracle Red Bull Racing, attracting leaders of Gwen\u2019s calibre is fundamental to achieving our ambitions.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re strengthening our high-performance organisation with outstanding people in every part of the business, and Gwen is an important addition of that journey.<\/p>\n
\u201cTogether, we will build on an incredibly strong foundation while continuing to evolve the program for the future.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lagrue added: \u201cJoining Oracle Red Bull Racing marks the beginning of an exciting new chapter for me.<\/p>\n
\u201cAfter 11 memorable years at Mercedes, I felt this was the right moment to take on a new challenge and continue growing personally and professionally.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Red Bull Junior Program is one of the most respected and successful driver development programmes in motorsport.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt has produced some of the greatest talents F1 has ever seen, and it is a real honour to have the opportunity to lead such a talented group of people and help shape its next chapter.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m looking forward to working closely with Laurent as well as the entire team and I am very thankful for this opportunity.<\/p>\n
\u201cTogether, we have a fantastic framework to build on the program\u2019s remarkable legacy, continue to evolve it for the future, and identify, develop and prepare the next generation of F1 race winners and world champions, following a pattern Oracle Red Bull Racing has successfully repeated over the past 20 years.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mercedes paid tribute to its outgoing staff member by likening his work to the original silver arrows junior team that helped put Michael Schumacher on the F1 radar.<\/p>\n
\u201cThank you Gwen. It\u2019s been a great ride together,\u201d read a post from the team.<\/p>\n
\u201cTogether, we\u2019ve developed many young drivers, including our current F1 drivers George and Kimi, and you\u2019ve made a fantastic contribution.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have built a true successor to the original Mercedes-Benz junior team, and you leave in place a talented group to carry on this work.<\/p>\n
\u201cProfessional relationships may come to an end, but we will always remain friends, with a shared mindset.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe wish you well for your next challenge.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Gwen Lagrue has departed his post at Mercedes to replace Dr Helmut Marko at Red Bull Racing. Image:…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":827159,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[573],"tags":[64,63,817,813,816,946,12357,85],"class_list":["post-827158","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-f1","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-red-bull-racing","tag-slot1","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/827158","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=827158"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/827158\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/827159"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=827158"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=827158"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=827158"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Red](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/XPB_1366495_HiRes.jpg\")
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tGwen Lagrue has departed his post at Mercedes to replace Dr Helmut Marko at Red Bull Racing. Image: XPB Images<\/p>\n