Chapter 1: What challenges did Red Bull Racing face when Laurent Mekies took over?
When Laurent Mechiers became Red Bull Racing team principal and CEO in 2025, he had a big decision to make.
With the new regulations coming for 2026, with the new power unit projects, there were all the reasons in the world to say, well, you know what, let's turn the page. 2025 did not work. Let's concentrate on 2026. You would have been mad to do anything differently. The truth is, Tom, nobody wanted to turn the page. That's how deep is the fighting spirit in the team.
Max Verstappen nearly completed one of the greatest comebacks of all time, missing out on the title by just two points. but after a difficult start to the new era of Formula One, are Red Bull now paying the price for that incredible turnaround last year?
We still think it was the right thing to do. Does it have an impact on where you start? 26, of course it does. But we are in full attack mode. If you walk in Milton Keynes right now, there is fire in every single department. The burning fire of wanting to go back as fast as possible to a more competitive car.
Chapter 2: Why did Red Bull Racing decide to focus on the 2025 car instead of the new regulations?
Hello and welcome to F1 Beyond the Grid with me, Tom Clarkson. Loro Mequiez has had a whirlwind couple of years. When we last spoke at the start of 2024, he'd just become a team principal for the first time with Racing Bulls. But just a year and a half into that role, he was promoted to Red Bull Racing, who were having problems both on and off the track.
Laurent led their recovery at the end of 2025. But in a new era of regulations, when Red Bull are making their own power units for the first time, they've slipped down the pecking order.
Laurent tells me in this conversation how big the move to Red Bull was for him personally, the reasons they didn't switch focus entirely to 2026 when he joined, and why he doesn't see this as a transitional period for the team, despite a lot of change. Laurent also shares great insight into what Max Verstappen is like outside the car, in debriefs and at marketing events.
And with the Max to Mercedes rumours still lingering in the paddock, I had to ask him if he's worried about Max leaving at the end of the year. We caught up just before the Japanese Grand Prix and Laurent was more candid than I've ever previously heard him. How are you? Lovely to see you again. Very good to see you, Tom. It's been a while.
Well, it's been two years, actually, since you were last on the pod.
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Chapter 3: How did Max Verstappen's performance change during the 2025 season?
And a lot has changed since then. You were just starting out as team principal of Racing Bulls back then. Amazing career trajectory since then. You're now running Red Bull Racing. Just sum up what's gone on in the last two years and how different your life is now.
You know what to say. It's been a bit of a crazy two years. But, you know, today, as in every other opportunities before, you know, you feel honored, you feel privileged, you feel lucky in that case to join such an incredible team.
and to have a chance to shoot for the wins again and fight for the titles again, and that's what we are loving, and that's what we dream of doing year after year, and to have this opportunity is incredible.
Can we talk about the job, right? Team principal at both places, but how different is the job at Red Bull Racing compared to where you were?
You know, the circumstances were very, very different. When I left Ferrari to join Racing Bulls, I had an imposed seven or eight months gardening leave. And obviously you are home. You only think about how you are going to tackle the next challenge.
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Chapter 4: What insights does Laurent Mekies provide about Max Verstappen's character?
So you pretty much have these permanent iterations about how you will go about it, about what people you want to take with you in the adventures. Not to mention that I knew the team from 10 years before, you know, when I used to work there. So when the adventure starts, which is pretty much when we did the interview two years ago, when the adventure started, you are already in execution mode.
You know, you, you are there, you, you have this, this plan, you reconnect with the people and you try to, to execute the plan. Starting with the record racing was the exact opposite of all that. There was obviously no warning. There was nothing like having the time to think about it or pick up your team or referring to what you knew of the team from prior experience.
So everything you knew about the team principal drum, pretty much you have to throw it in the bin. And the only priority was let's try to meet as many people as I can. Let's try to understand how this team is working. Let's try to see how we can support. And that's what happened the first few weeks.
And Montserrat trying to meet all the incredible people, opening all the doors of the campus in Milton Keynes and try to see all the magic, all the secrets that his team is known for in inventing these fast cars and meeting the people behind it. So a completely different approach compared to what had been the debut in racing bulls.
Chapter 5: What is the significance of Red Bull Racing's new Powertrains project?
But it's an incredible feeling because we are in a people business. You meet incredible people. Getting this opportunity makes you meet unbelievable people. And you don't win as much as Oracle Red Bull Racing has won in the last two decades by luck. You win because you have geniuses behind every door.
That's the privilege you have when you get that type of job is to get to know these people and try to support them.
What is your job description? What is the most important aspect of being team principal for you?
The only thing we do, you are going to be very disappointed. The only thing we do is to make sure our people have what they need to work. That's the only thing we do.
But what does that mean?
It's like you're empowering people, right? It means create the best working environment for your people to express their talents. So yes, it means empowering them as much as you can.
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Chapter 6: How does Laurent compare his role at Red Bull Racing to his previous experience?
And it means make sure that you have the right people and you keep the right people.
Politics, how much of it is politics? Because not only are you trying to make the fastest car, you're also trying to slow down the opposition, right?
You know what? This team is striking me and I'm sure quite a few others in how close to pure racing it is. Every single person on the campus is trying to make the car 1,000th of a second faster and is obsessed about that. And all we try to do as a team principle on top of the people aspect is to make sure that
our group is not disturbed or slowed down or distracted by what you call the politics, but can actually focus on what they love to do and what they are so good at. So really, is there a lot of politics in the job? Of course there is. But the way we look at it is let's try to keep that to the minimum. Let's concentrate on getting a fast car. If you get a fast car, everything else gets sorted.
Christian Horner did the job before you for 20 years. How different is your way?
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Chapter 7: What impact does team politics have on Red Bull Racing's performance?
You know, at first you need to give a huge credit to Christian's results, speak for themselves. They have been historical and, you know, Christian was leading that team, making it grow and therefore, you know, hats off to what has been done. I don't think... leadership style matters. You can find up and down the pit lane and in any business, very, very different style of leadership.
I think what matters is that as a leader, that you take care of your people, that you put them in the heart of the project, and that you get them the environment for them to express this talent. And that's what matters. How you do that, in which style do you do that, really doesn't, only the results will tell.
Talking of results, just how sweet were those wins in the back end of last season? How did that make you feel?
It made me feel so happy for the girls and the guys in the team because they had such a difficult start of the season last year. The car was not performing at the level they were hoping. Pressure was high. You come to the middle of the seasons and you get a new boss.
There were all the reasons in the world with the new regulations coming for 2026, with the new power unit projects, there were all the reasons in the world to say, well, you know what, let's turn the page.
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Chapter 8: What does the future hold for Isack Hadjar at Red Bull Racing?
25 did not work. Let's concentrate on 26. You had really, you would have been mad to do anything differently, to want to do things differently. The truth is, Tom, nobody wanted to do that in Milton Keynes. Nobody wanted to turn the page. They all wanted to get to the bottom of that 25 car, get to the bottom of what didn't work to the level expected, and turn things around.
And yes, they knew there would be a price to pay for later, but that's how deep is the fighting spirit in the team. And so when they all put the extra effort to try to understand what was limiting us, try to bring a greater solutions to to cure the issues we had, taking a huge amount of risk in doing so, it has not been a smooth
Second part of the year, we had the many wins, but we also had extremely painful races. I'm sure you recall Zandvoort or Budapest or maybe Saturday in Brazil. So all these successes came with that incredible spirit of the teams there that didn't want to give up. All the successes came from the massive risk-taking that the team had to take in that short amount of time to turn things around.
So to your point, When you eventually win, the thoughts are for the incredible spirit of the people and the hard work they've put into it.
That's a pretty big shout for you though. You've just come in the job and you're having to say, okay, we're going to stick with the 25 car and not put everything on 26. I assume that came down, you ultimately had to make that call within days of getting the job.
But that was easy because nobody wanted to give up.
And do you think you're paying the price this year for that?
We thought, and we still think, it was the right thing to do because we felt that turning the page to 26 would have been a little bit of an easy escape and a wishful thinking that next year will be better, even though we didn't fully understand what was the limitation of 25. We didn't think it was the right way.
Now, of course, the time and energy we invested for the late push last year, does it have an impact on where you start 26, of course it does. So of course we pay a bit of the price today. Do we use it as an excuse? No. We are not happy with the starting point. but we think we will get through these difficulties. We will, as we did last year, we will get the full understanding of the limitations.
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