How Laurent Mekies, ‘an engineer with a heart,' became Red Bull F1 team boss

New York Times

15-07-2025

When Red Bull made the shock announcement that Christian Horner had been dismissed after 20 years as team principal of its Formula One team, it wasted zero time naming his successor.
In the same press release confirming Horner's exit, Red Bull said that Laurent Mekies, the team principal of the sister Racing Bulls team, would take over as CEO and team principal of Red Bull Racing. Over one night, 48-year-old Mekies had been catapulted into one of the biggest and highest-profile F1 jobs, taking the reins of a team with a lengthy list of problems.
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There's the issue of the downturn in on-track performance amid continued struggles with its car. Plus, the question marks over star driver Max Verstappen's future, as he ponders an early exit. And also the need to rally a team that has lost a well-respected and liked leader that was all many staff members had ever known.
Mekies immediately set to work, flying to the UK for a filming day at Silverstone the day after his promotion was announced. It gave him the chance to meet with members of his new team, shake hands and start getting to know the workforce he is tasked with supporting and lifting.
'You want to discover the magic, you want to meet the guys and the girls that are doing the magic behind the scenes,' Mekies said in an interview released by Red Bull.
'That's what the next few weeks will be dedicated to — to try to meet as many of our people as possible, to listen to them, to try to understand this beautiful, magic machine that is Red Bull Formula One, and eventually find ways to contribute and to support.'
Mekies has spent more than 20 years in F1. He's worked his way up the ladder, gaining experience on each side of the fence as both a competitor and working for motorsport's regulator, the FIA.
Mekies started out at the now-defunct Arrows team in 2001 — the same year Max Verstappen's father, Jos, raced at the team — working with its engine supplier before joining Minardi the following year as a race engineer. That team was bought by Red Bull in 2005 and rebranded as Toro Rosso (Italian for 'Red Bull') for 2006 – to serve as the sister team to Red Bull Racing. This brought Mekies into the Red Bull family for the first time.
Mekies ultimately rose to become head of vehicle performance at Toro Rosso, making him one of the most senior engineering figures within the team, before leaving in 2014 to join the FIA as its new safety director. Although this role covered all of the FIA's championships, Mekies had significant involvement in F1, particularly when working on the introduction of the 'halo' cockpit protection device in the wake of Jules Bianchi's accident at Suzuka in 2014. The 10-year anniversary of the Frenchman's death from the injuries he sustained in that crash is July 17.
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Despite skepticism from many F1 drivers and observers at the time, Mekies pushed on with the research work into the device with support from then-FIA president Jean Todt. The halo was eventually introduced for all F1 cars ahead of the 2018 season. Since then, it has been credited with saving many lives across multiple single-seater categories.
Mekies worked closely with Charlie Whiting, F1's then race director, on the project. He was named as Whiting's deputy in 2017. It gave Mekies direct involvement in F1 sporting matters, and he was viewed as a potential successor to the great Whiting in the role, only to leave the FIA to become Ferrari's sporting director in September 2018. Whiting died suddenly on the eve of the 2019 season, leaving shoes that the FIA has since struggled to fill.
At Ferrari, Mekies became an instrumental part of its leadership team, working under Mattia Binotto as sporting chief, before being named deputy team principal. He was one of the Scuderia's key spokespeople, being the most outspoken about the 'very limited' impact of the sanction given to Red Bull for breaching F1's cost cap in 2022. The idea of Mekies one day becoming Ferrari team principal seemed logical.
But he was passed over for the top job after Binotto was fired in favor of Fred Vasseur at 2022's end. Vasseur, who moved from Sauber, had been friends with Mekies for over 20 years. This meant that when Mekies was offered the chance to become team principal at AlphaTauri — now Racing Bulls — for 2024, Vasseur had no desire to stand in his way.
Mekies' Ferrari exit proved amicable, allowing him to take the helm alongside Racing Bulls CEO Peter Bayer, who he'd worked with at the FIA, for the start of that season. Horner played a key role in Mekies' appointment, along with Red Bull motorsport advisor Helmut Marko and Oliver Mintzlaff, Red Bull GmbH's effective CEO.
Amid the turbulence at the senior Red Bull team in the wake of the allegations made against Horner, Mekies and Bayer were tasked with helping the rebranded sister team find its feet and direction. Former team boss Franz Tost had always targeted a top-five constructors' championship finish, but the squad had never truly grown out of its status as being primarily a training ground for future Red Bull Racing drivers.
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It fulfilled that role successfully, nurturing Sebastian Vettel, Daniel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen, but there was always a feeling of untapped potential in its overall results. Pulling in big-name title sponsors such as Visa and Cash App for 2024 showed Red Bull's desire to make more out of its junior squad.
Racing Bulls remains in the thick of F1's current tight midfield fight, occasionally emerging at the very top of that pile. But it has had to compete through regular driver changes – a consequence of Red Bull Racing's own search to solve its second car problem and find someone capable of getting anywhere close to Verstappen.
Now, it is Mekies who will be the one trying to remedy that issue at the senior Red Bull team. After two instances in the past of looking like a natural successor to a top job in F1, he has suddenly ascended into such a role when it was least expected.
Mekies' personal skills have often been cited as being a particular strength by many of his paddock allies. Interviews have always proven to be thoughtful and entertaining, never a chore. A former colleague of his once commented privately to The Athletic that he was 'a rare example of an engineer with a heart.'
In the interview released by Red Bull after his promotion, Mekies placed an emphasis on the people within his new team, calling them 'the very best in the world at what they do.'
'That's what this team is,' Mekies added. 'Even from being competitors previously, we look at you guys as being the sharpest team, having managed to accumulate the biggest amount of talent together.'
Mekies will call upon the lessons from his long, varied career as he adjusts to life in the top job at Red Bull. 'We learn massively from the people we've met over the years,' Mekies said in an interview with GP Racing magazine last year.
'Consciously or unconsciously, what makes us addicted to this sport is the competition, of course, but also the incredible quality of the people you meet over the years. I've been very lucky to work with these guys with such outstanding qualities.'
As sudden as this switch may have been, the past 20 years have prepared Mekies for his moment. Now, he must harness all that experience to deal with what will surely be his greatest challenge to date: turning Red Bull back into a championship contender.