In the wake of Red Bull's bombshell decision to sack Christian Horner this week, it was easy to miss the name of the man replacing him: Laurent Mekies.
The Frenchman has made the immediate step up from Racing Bulls, Red Bull's junior team, where he'd been team principal since the start of 2024. His appointment marks the latest chapter in a remarkable 20-year journey through virtually every level of Formula 1, both on the competitive and governance side of the sport.
Born in 1977 in Tours, France, Mekies studied mechanical engineering at ESTACA in Paris before completing a master's degree at Loughborough. He entered F1 with Arrows in 2001, then joined Minardi the following year.
When Red Bull bought the team and rebranded it as Toro Rosso, Mekies stayed on, eventually becoming head of vehicle performance. He was a core part of the team when Sebastian Vettel delivered the team's fairytale victory at the 2008 Italian Grand Prix.
In 2014, Mekies joined the FIA as safety director, where he played a pivotal role in the development and implementation of the Halo cockpit protection device, now a mainstay of modern F1 safety. His 2018 move to Ferrari sparked controversy due to a lack of gardening leave, frustrating rival teams.
At Maranello, he rose through the ranks from sporting director to deputy team principal and racing director, seen as a steadying presence during a volatile period for the Scuderia. After five years at Ferrari, a call from Red Bull's orbit brought him back.
In 2024, he took over as team boss of the renamed Racing Bulls, working alongside new CEO Peter Bayer to redefine the team's long-time identity as a Red Bull B-squad. One of the most high-profile episodes of his brief tenure was the messy mid-season departure of Daniel Ricciardo. Mekies didn't shy away from criticism.
"We are not happy with ultimately how we handled it, and of course we are very conscious that we could, and should, have done a better job," he said after Ricciardo's emotional exit in Singapore.
Now, Mekies steps into one of the most scrutinised jobs in world sport -- tasked with guiding Red Bull through its post-Horner era and keeping the reigning champions competitive in a fast-shifting F1 landscape. He joins at a time the wheels of Red Bull's next cycle are already in motion, with the team set to end its Honda partnership at the end of 2025 and start racing with its own engine in 2026.Red Bull Powertrains has already been developing the 2026 engine.
The most obvious task facing the softly-spoken Frenchman is obvious: convincing Max Verstappen that his long-term future should be with Red Bull Racing. Verstappen has a contract until 2028 but has clauses to escape if performance is not good.
Red Bull's decision to part with Horner seemed, in part, to be a last roll of the dice to quieten the noise around the prospect of Verstappen racing elsewhere next season. Whether it is enough remains to be seen.
The team is cautious about the upcoming rule change next year and expects to be off the pace of the class-leading car, although making any predictions about performance relative to the rest at this stage is largely guesswork.
