Max Verstappen faces new challenges at Spa without Christian Horner
Image: AFP
For the first time since joining Red Bull as a teenager a decade ago, Max Verstappen will compete in a Formula 1 race without his former boss Christian Horner in his corner.
The paddock unfolds this weekend at Spa-Francorchamps, considered to be one of the sport's greatest circuits and a home race for Verstappen in Belgium.
But it's going to include some uncomfortable feelings at first, or maybe even a few races after this week, as the World Champion acquaints himself with his new boss Laurent Mekies.
Horner was sacked earlier this month as the team struggled to reel themselves back from a slide that saw them go from the most dominant team in 2023 to bottom of the top four contenders this season.
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Mekies has an almost impossible task of trying to beat McLaren and Mercedes this season, even with the four-time World Champion in his team.
It would be interesting to see how the team functions under new leadership of Mekies, who is no stranger himself to the World of F1 or Red Bull staff.
Prior to his ascent to principal of the Red Bull senior team, Mekies was team principal at the sister team 'Racing Bulls'.
At this point, Verstappen is one of few main characters left in the Red Bull outfit with the likes of Horner and Adrian Newey now a thing of the past.
Mekies may refocus efforts to make Red Bull a two-car team again, seeing that Horner opted to throw all the eggs in Verstappen's basket toward the end of his leadership years. As a result, Red Bull have not looked the slightest bit competitive when it comes to Constructor Titles since last year.
Former F1 driver Jolyon Palmer said this week that Mekies and Red Bull needed to 'knuckle down' on the hierarchy and paint a clear picture for Verstappen, who still performs during turmoil.
'Can they keep their star driver? Because Max, at the moment, seems to be the glue that's just holding this whole team together right now.
'If you take out Max from Red Bull… They've lost all the old management – Helmut Marko is still there in an advisory capacity – but a lot of the race team have gone from senior positions, yet Max is still able to deliver pole position at Silverstone. He's still able to direct the team.
'Gianpiero Lambiase is obviously now going to be a central figure as well, who's got a great relationship with Max. But, the other driver is a big question mark as well, and that's where Laurent has got some great experience working with Yuki Tsunoda before, and others, to try and sort out what's going on there,' Palmer said.
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