Laurent Mekies on the pressure of resuming Red Bull, the mission to accomplish and why they need the “magic” of Max Verstappen

As a major jobs in Sport Go, Laurent Mekies now has one of the biggest after taking over as bosses of the winners of the team of teams six times Red Bull.

The Frenchman is only the second person to lead the team during his 20 years of history and takes the bar at a time when she has trouble offering performances.

Mekies, an engineer by trade, has been in Formula 1 for 24 years, working with Arrows, Minardi, Toro Rosso, FIA, Ferrari, Racing Bulls and now Red Bull. More recently, he helped transform the organizational structure of Racing Bull and, with the CEO, Peter Bayer, shaped the team into a high midfielder.

Thus, when Red Bull decided that the change was necessary at the top, they looked within the family and that it was Mekies that they turned to replace Christian Horner, who had been with the team since their beginnings in sport.

Speaking exclusively at F1.com in the Red Bull energy station Thursday in the Spa Paddock, before his first appearance in front of the world’s media at the Friday FIA press conference, Mekies reduced a relaxed and charming silhouette when he detailed how he brought the news that would change his life.

“Obviously, this came out of blue, as for you,” he said. “So mine was probably quite similar to you. I received a call a few hours before everyone is informed. And it was Oliver [Mintzlaff, Red Bull CEO Corporate Projects and Investments] and helmut [Marko, Red Bull’s Motorsport Adviser].

“Of course, it took me by surprise. Then you try to digest and then you say, wait a second, it’s Red Bull calling you to play this role. How can it be something other than a privilege?

So you feel this feeling of Red Bull energy there. And that’s how it happened. Obviously, I recalled them. And the rest is history. “”

“ They have this incredible spirit of combat ”

You do not sleep much as director of the team, so demanding is work, and Mekies admitted to be even less than normal than normal in the last two weeks while ideas swirl in his head on the way in which he would tackle one of the precious works of F1. The first thing that came to mind, he said, was to meet the people.

“This is how you use time now to meet these incredible people, to meet the teams, start to know each other, to start interacting, to understand the forces, to understand the dynamics, to understand all this,” he adds.

“And of course, it’s only two weeks and you are far from where you want to be, but it’s a completely different feeling once you start this process and get to know more people every day. So that makes a pretty incredible trip.”

Mekies is a people of the people. Talk to anyone who worked with him throughout his stay in F1 and they will tell you how much he is an intelligent, thoughtful and motivated human. He galvanizes a team. That he mentioned people so early in our cat – and so often that the cat has continued – shows you how important they know that they create a successful operation.

This is why he did not waste time meeting them, whether during a day of pre-plane filming on the track or on their Milton Keynes campus. These are the first days of course, but he is already impressed by what he saw.

“Each day is a discovery of some of the talents there,” he says. “Each day is a discovery of how the team works. The common element is that each angle you find, each door you grow, you find this incredible race of racing.

“The guys and the girls are there to win. You really have the feeling where you think that these guys are the best in the world in what they are doing. And they have this incredible combat spirit. And so every day, you are lucky to meet some of them and start interacting a little more and a little more. And that’s how it has been the last two weeks.”

Naturally, it was difficult to say goodbye to the Bulls Racing, where he had occupied his very main main role in a team and had spent time at the start of his career ringing his job as an engineer – but he knows that the team is in good hands, having suggested to Alan Permanement – that he had recruited as a race director was the right person for work with Bayer.

“On the one hand, it’s very difficult because the adventure was incredible there,” he said. “We were on an incredible trajectory with everyone and we had made so many changes together in the past year and a half, we really have the impression that things were going to speed up and happen even better.

“So, on this side, of course, you feel a little strange to leave the boat. But on the other hand, the team is in perfect hands.

“Alan is just the best guy possible to take the main role of the team. He knows the team upside down. He symbolizes the spirit very well that we have tried to build with everyone there and to lead him, teaming up with Peter, with the whole team around him.”

“ Red Bull wants to fight for the victories, to fight for the championships ”

The leader of Red Bull is a big step forward compared to the main racing bulls – the targets knew the battles at the net end of the midfield with his former team to fight for victories and championships with his new team. The pressure is enormous.

“There is only one desire to Red Bull,” he said. “And that goes from the board of directors to anyone to Red Bull F1. They are there to fight for the victories, to fight for the championships. And they are there with the maximum commitment of the group to say that we want the team to continue to fight for the victory, fighting for the championships, obtaining the best car.

“It is therefore naturally the target. This is not a new target. It is not a renewed commitment. It is just a renewed commitment from the team and the group to say that it is a team with which we want to fight for the championship and we will do everything we have to do to continue doing it in the future.”

The obvious follow-up of follow-up is “How does he plan to do this?”, Given that the team is currently fourth in the team championship after seeing key staff like the Adrian NewEy design guru and sports director Jonathan Wheatley leave the operation in the past two years to pursue opportunities with rival teams.

Her answer will not surprise you because she focused on people. “It is a question of making sure that our people are in the right environment with the right tools so that their talents do magic,” he said.

Formula 1 success takes time and tends to be cyclical. Mercedes dominated the Hybrid Turbo era, but was first demoted as class leaders by Red Bull and are now found behind the new McLaren rhythms.

Fighting at the front is not the work of the moment – and their challenge is even greater for next year because it is the first time that they will run with their own power unit, produced in tandem with the American car giant Ford. Fortunately, Mekies says that the board of directors understands that he can take time to rebuild.

“I think Red Bull has been in sport for so long,” he said. “They know exactly how sport works and they know what you can expect in the short term, what you can expect in the medium term, what you can expect in the long term.

“We have these incredible challenges to come with sports trains that will mix with the 2026 regulations challenge. So you don’t need to explain this kind of thing to management. They are completely aware of these dynamics.

“You have fire at all levels of the company in terms of aggressively and the level of assault that you want to put at each level of the company to be able to give this struggle for victory, for the championships, a big try.”

“Max is at the heart of the project and we need his magic”

A key element of any successful operation in Formula 1 is the range of pilots of a team – and one of the largest tasks of the Mekies platform is to keep its quadruple world champion Max Verstappen, whose future has been speculation despite a contract with the team up to at least the end of 2028.

Verstappen said Thursday that “the only thing that matters is that we are working on the car and do it as fast as we can do it” and Mekies knows that the team’s best chance to keep the Dutch on books is to deliver it.

“The truth is that Red Bull is extremely attached to Max,” he said. “And the way we can be extremely involved in the maximum is to give it the best car possible. And to give it the best car possible is that each person in the business wants more than anything else.

“So this is where the effort is really made. And the rest will be a consequence. But of course, Max is at the heart of the project and he is the key to the project and we need his magic in the racetrack. He has been with the team for a very long time and he has huge contributions to help us lead the next competitive advantage that we will need to build.”

So, does he hope to be able to deliver a car that Verstappen wants and will be sufficient to make it stay?

“I think the team has everything to do,” he said. “He has the means. He has his mind. And more importantly, he has the talents. So in short, yes, I think we have everything to give this to our drivers.”

Regarding his Verstappen teammate, Yuki Tsunoda, Mekies knows that the Japanese driver has led him well at Racing Bulls. He saw the first hand how Tsunoda can froze in a team and get the most out of a car. He has already seen that Tsunoda does the first part of the first part of Red Bull very well – and that the team is behind him trying to unlock the second part of what everyone in F1 knows is one of the most difficult cars of the grid to tame.

“Yuki is a quick guy,” he said. “There is no doubt. And the speed does not disappear. The circumstances were difficult. I know that the team is very strongly behind it, trying to unlock what can be unlocked and try to connect the points where the points must be connected.

“So he has a very, very good interaction with the team. And yes, I am convinced that he will be able to show his true value in the near future.”

Mekies has had an impressive race in Formula 1 to date. He is extremely respected among his contemporaries and is renowned for the way in which he expresses a workforce, offers performance and creates a positive culture. The most of these features will be critical because he takes up the greatest challenge in his career.