Red Bull “questions” about whether one of Christian Horner’s greatest responsibilities should go to Laurent Mekie.
Mekies has been replaced by sending out Horner as Red Bull’s team principal and CEO.
But Horner’s broad seniority across the entire F1 team’s operations — reportedly one of the causes of his ultimate downfall was creating the Meki question mark.
Horner also gained final say in Red Bull’ Powertrains, a collaboration with Ford that will take effect in 2026, allowing Formula 1 teams to no longer rely on the use of the Honda engine.
It has not yet been revealed whether the Mekies will run the powertrain.
“Laurent would be the first to get a grasp of the race team,” Lawrence Barrett told the F1 Nation Podcast.
“Maybe we’re looking at the wider Red Bull management to strengthen senior management around Laurent.
“Given that this happened very quickly, there may be questions that answer it internally. I don’t think they’ll load map it.
“It feels like the first step of many steps to bring this team back to a great power.
“It is a big job for Laurent to run the racing team and monitor the power unit facilities.
“Extreme” Red Bull end mise was highlighted
Max Verstappen
Jollion Palmer added: “The way the wheels fell off the wagon was extreme given their recent success and there was no overhaul in regulations.
“Take over an established front-running team – a tailender without Max – putting the right driver on it to solve the way to make a car driveable is a really big job.
“Then you have a powertrain on the horizon, which is something that is not much known to your team.
“They have a good partnership with Honda, but they’ve had it for a long time. They were really competitive with that.
“It’s a risk for them and something else that’s tough timing for Laurent.”
F1 2026 regulations provide an opportunity for all teams to create the next era of domination.
Red Bull offers the Max Verstappen 4 consecutive F1 driver titles, and is about to return to the winning method that previously allowed Sebastian Vettel to dominate.
However, Mekies joins his new job with a series of obvious issues.
Verstappen’s future, his teammates’ performance and uncompetitive machinery are on his to-do list to fix it.