Latest news with #teamprincipal
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Automotive
- Yahoo
New Racing Bulls F1 team boss ‘shocked' after ‘amazing' promotion
Alan Permane admitted he was 'shocked' after being announced as Racing Bulls' new team principal following Christian Horner's exit at Red Bull. The domino effect of Horner being relieved of his duties saw Laurent Mekies – formerly RB team principal – promoted to Red Bull F1 CEO. Permane, who was previously racing director at RB, is now the team boss. The 58-year-old was previously with Alpine, in all its previous guises including championship-winning seasons with Benetton and Renault, for 34 years before being let go in July 2023. The engineer joined Racing Bulls at the start of last season. 'I had many reactions to the news, some shock, some pride,' Permane told 'It's amazing that they feel I'm capable and have the potential to lead this team. 'I deeply thank the Red Bull Austria senior management, Oliver Mintzlaff and Helmut Marko, and of course Laurent for recommending me, pushing me forward, his belief in me as well. It's been a great week.' Racing Bulls are currently seventh in the constructors' championship and have two young talents in Liam Lawson and Isack Hadjar in the cockpit. Alan Permane is Racing Bulls's new team principal (Getty Images) Yuki Tsunoda was previously with the team for four years before being promoted in March to replace Lawson, dropped by Red Bull after just two races. 'It's a great team and I know that the senior Red Bull guys are extremely happy with the way the team is being run,' Permane added. 'They're very happy with our competitiveness. 'The target is to be top of the midfield, and we are certainly in a battle for that and we'll continue that fight throughout this year.' The next race of the 2025 season is the Belgian Grand Prix at Spa-Francorchamps this weekend (25-27 July).
The Independent
2 days ago
- Automotive
- The Independent
New Racing Bulls F1 team boss ‘shocked' after ‘amazing' promotion
Alan Permane admitted he was 'shocked' after being announced as Racing Bulls' new team principal following Christian Horner 's exit at Red Bull. The domino effect of Horner being relieved of his duties saw Laurent Mekies – formerly RB team principal – promoted to Red Bull F1 CEO. Permane, who was previously racing director at RB, is now the team boss. The 58-year-old was previously with Alpine, in all its previous guises including championship-winning seasons with Benetton and Renault, for 34 years before being let go in July 2023. The engineer joined Racing Bulls at the start of last season. 'It's amazing that they feel I'm capable and have the potential to lead this team. 'I deeply thank the Red Bull Austria senior management, Oliver Mintzlaff and Helmut Marko, and of course Laurent for recommending me, pushing me forward, his belief in me as well. It's been a great week.' Racing Bulls are currently seventh in the constructors' championship and have two young talents in Liam Lawson and Isack Hadjar in the cockpit. Yuki Tsunoda was previously with the team for four years before being promoted in March to replace Lawson, dropped by Red Bull after just two races. 'It's a great team and I know that the senior Red Bull guys are extremely happy with the way the team is being run,' Permane added. 'They're very happy with our competitiveness. 'The target is to be top of the midfield, and we are certainly in a battle for that and we'll continue that fight throughout this year.' The next race of the 2025 season is the Belgian Grand Prix at Spa-Francorchamps this weekend (25-27 July).
New York Times
2 days ago
- Automotive
- New York Times
Why F1 team principal sackings now resemble football managers' revolving doors
Christian Horner's shock departure from Red Bull Racing last Wednesday ended the longest tenure of any Formula One team principal from the current field. Horner had been in charge of Red Bull's F1 operation for more than 20 years. Horner's fierce rival, Toto Wolff, who took charge of Mercedes 12 years ago, now claims the title of longest-tenured team principal. Advertisement But after Wolff, it's Andrea Stella, who has been in charge of McLaren's race operations for less than three years. In less than eight months, half of the grid has experienced a change in team principal, marking a significant change in F1's leadership landscape. The time allotted for results to be delivered is growing shorter and shorter, more akin to the managerial merry-go-round seen in football than a sport such as F1, where turning a team around is hardly the work of a moment. Yet time is not a plentiful currency in F1, especially in the current era where the performance gaps between teams are finer than ever and underperformance is felt all the more acutely. Unlike past decades, few seats atop the pit wall are guaranteed for long. At the start of 2020, F1's roster of 10 teams had, for the most part, long-serving and well-entrenched leaders heading up their teams. Wolff and Horner's long tenures were not outliers. Franz Tost had been at the helm of AlphaTauri (now Racing Bulls) since its debut in 2006. Claire Williams had been hands-on leading her family team on a day-to-day basis since 2013. Otmar Szafnauer (then Racing Point), Guenther Steiner (Haas) and Fred Vasseur (Sauber) were all years into those roles and a big part of the identities of all those teams. Of the 10 team principals (or equivalent role, looking after day-to-day operations) that led a squad into the delayed 2020 season, only one — Wolff — remains in the same position. The only other person who was in charge of a team in 2020 and still is today is Vasseur, who left Sauber at the end of 2022 to take over at Ferrari for the 2023 season. Mattia Binotto, who was Ferrari's team principal in 2020, remains in a senior F1 role as the CEO of Sauber amid its evolution into Audi for 2026. A notable shift in the make-up of F1's team principals has been toward those with a background in engineering. Red Bull's decision to replace Horner with Laurent Mekies is just the latest step in that trend. Of the 10 team principals in 2020, only two — Andreas Seidl and Binotto — came from something of an engineering background. Now, nine of them are, with Wolff the main exception. Vasseur, although a trained engineer, has not held any F1 engineering posts. Advertisement There has also been an uptick in the number of team principal changes throughout the grid. From 2018 to 2020, there was only one change per year, occurring at McLaren, Ferrari and Williams. Since then, there have been at least two changes in leadership per year, rocketing to six in 2022 and already reaching five in the first six and a half months of 2025. Team principals moving from one F1 squad to another do raise this figure a small amount, such as Szafnauer going from Aston Martin to Alpine ahead of 2022, or Mekies' current move from Racing Bulls to Red Bull. But teams rather than individuals have instigated the majority of changes in this period. Horner's exit was the end of an era for Red Bull. Having been appointed to oversee its debut season in 2005 after Red Bull purchased the ailing Jaguar team at the end of 2004, working under Horner is all that most at the Milton Keynes factory will likely have ever known. The departure of such a long-serving figurehead is one that a handful of other teams have also experienced in recent years. The Williams family's decision to sell its team to Dorilton Capital in the summer of 2020 led to Claire Williams stepping away from her role, while Tost's retirement at the end of 2023 brought about change at Racing Bulls. Over the past 15 years, F1 team principals have also largely moved away from boardroom involvement or shareholdings in the squad companies. They are now more typically direct employees. The times when Frank Williams or Ron Dennis would be calling the shots at Williams and McLaren, with their own money invested, are essentially a thing of the past. The exception — again — is Wolff, who owns one-third of Mercedes. As powerful and entrenched as Horner was at Red Bull, serving as a director of its F1 companies, he was always an employee. This meant that once the shareholders decided his time was up, they could opt to, as they framed it, release him from his operational duties. Advertisement The result is a paddock that now shuffles its team bosses with brisk precision — their futures dictated less by long-term stewardship than by near-term results. The main underlying desire behind changing an F1 team principal is to bring about performance improvement on the track. The old cliche that the stopwatch never lies rings true, particularly in Horner's case. Red Bull winning papered over the growing cracks at that team. Its on-track struggles throughout the year meant they became too great to ignore. Ferrari has long operated on this principle. Since the team last won a championship in 2008, it has gone through five team principals. Change has beeb implemented whenever it considered results unsatisfactory. Stefano Domenicali resigned early in 2014 after a disastrous start to the season, after five years in the role; Maurizio Arrivabene and Binotto both delivered wins, but never championships. Vasseur, in his third season, now faces pressure with Ferrari winless to date in 2025. But many teams recognize that a team principal needs time for their changes to take root. By far the most successful recent example of this is Stella, who, upon taking charge at McLaren in December 2022, made clear the team would struggle early in 2023 after missing its previous development targets. But once he was able to make changes and set the direction of the team, its results swung upwards — leading it to last year's constructors' title and looking bound for both championships in 2025. F1 team owners know this takes time, but they also lack exhaustive patience. Williams didn't see a positive change in direction under Jost Capito, prompting the team to bring in James Vowles for 2023 instead. His leadership has been heralded as a great success. Aston Martin's F1 CEO, Andy Cowell, took on team principal duties from Mike Krack in January as part of an internal restructuring amid that team's downturn in performance. The revolving door at Alpine has stemmed from not only changes at the top of its Renault parent company and shifting desires in what the French manufacturer wants from its F1 team, but also from Alpine's struggle to join F1's front-runners. It speaks to the ruthlessness that has always been part of F1, regardless of history. Steiner helped Gene Haas set up his eponymous F1 team in 2016, only to be informed on the phone while at the supermarket in 2023 that his services would no longer be required. Both parties felt they'd be better off without one another. Steiner has since established a bustling media career, while Haas enjoyed its best season for six years under his replacement, Ayao Komatsu, in 2024. Advertisement For all of the change that has taken place in the F1 team principal market over recent years, all 10 teams naturally hope they won't need to make another swap anytime soon. Some have made firm commitments to their existing bosses — rewarding the stability and success they have brought. Stella secured a new long-term McLaren contract at the end of last year, while Williams moved to lock in Vowles last month. Both are successfully building these teams in their visions. There are also early positive signs from Komatsu at Haas and Jonathan Wheatley at Sauber, with the latter only taking up his role in April after a long stint at Red Bull as sporting director, but already helping snare an unlikely podium with Nico Hülkenberg at Silverstone last time out. In both cases, there's plenty of time to build things up. The same will be true for incoming Alpine managing director Steve Nielsen, who will oversee the day-to-day running of the team and report to its executive advisor, Flavio Briatore. Now that Alpine is onto its sixth team principal (or equivalent) in five years, stability is greatly needed. In taking over at Red Bull, Mekies has a mighty job on his hands, given the length of Horner's tenure and the loyalty felt toward him from within that team. But there is a trust in place, with Red Bull motorsport advisor Helmut Marko writing in his column for Speed Week that Mekies was a 'natural fit' to take over. Again, time will be given. These things move in cycles. Similar to how F1's driver market exploded in 2024 after a dormant 2023, it may enter a period of calm and some semblance of security for the current team principals, with so many new figures now in charge. The downward swing after 2022's flurry of changes serves as proof that we may get less movement amongst this group in the near future. But as ever in F1, the need for results remains, especially with big car design rule changes beckoning for 2026 that could come to define where success goes in the years that follow. Some time will be afforded, of course, yet that can only buy so much patience from those at the very top. (Top photo of Christian Horner and Guenther Steiner:;)
New York Times
15-07-2025
- Automotive
- New York Times
How Laurent Mekies, ‘an engineer with a heart,' became Red Bull F1 team boss
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. Advertisement 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. Advertisement 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. Advertisement 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.
The Independent
14-07-2025
- Automotive
- The Independent
Karun Chandhok weighs up ‘potential' next F1 team for Christian Horner
Karun Chandhok speculated that Christian Horner could join Alpine as team principal after his Red Bull exit. Horner was relieved of his duties as Red Bull F1 CEO last week in a surprise announcement, after 20 years and 14 world titles with the team. The 51-year-old has not missed a race since taking charge of Red Bull in 2005 but is set for some time away from the sport in light of his departure. However, Horner has been linked with Ferrari in recent months – and a potential link-up with Lewis Hamilton – but Sky Sports pundit Chandhok named another outfit who could target Horner. 'Could he go to Alpine and stay living in the UK?' Chandhok told Sky Sports News. 'Alpine are still based in that motorsport valley and are looking for a team principal. Christian's old friend Flavio Briatore is in charge. That could be a potential destination. 'Could he go to Ferrari? There were lots of rumours that they tried to hire him on various occasions. I don't think he'll go there.' Horner lives in rural Oxfordshire, close to Alpine's UK base in Enstone, and has a close relationship with Alpine adviser Briatore. Laurent Mekies, formerly team principal at sister team Racing Bulls, has taken over from Horner at Red Bull and will take charge from the next race, the Belgian Grand Prix (25-27 July). Red Bull are currently fourth in the constructors' championship while star driver Max Verstappen is 69 points behind leader Oscar Piastri in the drivers' standings at the halfway stage of the season.
