Red Bull team principal Laurent Mekies looks back on his first weeks at the helm of the Austrian racing team. The Frenchman replaced veteran Christian Horner halfway through the 2025 season. At that time, Red Bull could only dream of competing for the title. However, Mekies was impressed by the team’s determination not to throw in the towel: “While they could have said, ‘You know what, this car doesn’t work. We’ll fix it next year.’”
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Laurent Mekies started as Red Bull team principal halfway through 2025, after Christian Horner had to leave the Austrians. At that time, Max Verstappen was still facing a significant gap behind then World Champion leader Oscar Piastri. After the Dutch GP, the difference was still 104 World Championship points in favor of the Australian, but that changed due to the impressive comeback by Verstappen and Red Bull.
Mekies looks back on his first weeks at the helm of the Austrian racing team. “When I joined the team last year, it now feels a bit unreal,” he tells RACER. “I tried to get to know our amazing people in the team as quickly as possible. There was a huge effort to turn things around after a difficult start to the season. I remember very well that Pierre (Waché, ed.) and the team did not want to give up, that they did not accept the poor performance of last year’s car.”
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‘Max magic’
Mekies was surprised that the entire Red Bull team did not want to give up the title fight despite the huge gap to McLaren. “They had every reason in the world to turn the page, with the new 2026 regulations approaching, the new engine coming, and a new team principal. They could have said, ‘You know what, this car doesn’t work. We’ll fix it next year.’”
“But no one wanted to do that,” the Frenchman continues. “And slowly but surely they found a new ‘sweet spot’ for the car, new developments for the car, new paths.” Then, according to Mekies, only one ingredient was needed for Red Bull’s revival: “Together with some ‘Max magic’ that ensured our comeback.”
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Read everything about the Dutch GP in Zandvoort here
