Amid a turbulent period for Red Bull, their new team principal, Laurent Mekies, is bearing the responsibility and the scrutiny, for the moment at least, with a smile.
After not quite two weeks in charge since the dismissal of Christian Horner, Mekies and Red Bull are adjusting to a new era with a business as usual attitude even as the circumstances suggest it can be anything but, before this weekend’s Belgian Grand Prix.
At Spa, Mekies faced the press for the first time in his new role and was presented with a barrage of questions, which he fielded with the light touch and good humour of a man enjoying his position in what might be considered its honeymoon period at the Red Bull helm.
The weather in the Ardennes forests demonstrated its usual capricious sweep from mist and rain to hazy sunshine, playing as the backdrop to the attention in the paddock centred on the Red Bull motorhome, where the atmosphere around the team has been febrile.
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Oliver Mintzlaff, the managing director of Red Bull’s parent company, Red Bull GmbH, was in attendance, a relatively rare occurrence and indicative of the sea change that has taken place, with Mintzlaff the ultimate victor in his power struggle with Horner.
Mintzlaff, for such a key player, is anonymous enough to slip in and out of the paddock all but unnoticed. Not so Max Verstappen’s father, Jos, and his manager, Raymond Vermeulen, who arrived flanked by photographers who caught the relaxed and contented air emanating from both men, with Verstappen Sr in particular having long-lobbied against Horner.
Helmut Marko, the head of motorsport and a Verstappen ally, duly took his place too as all of Red Bull’s power players came to oversee Mekies’s first race in charge and Red Bull’s first without Horner in control.
Inside the team the personnel are without doubt undergoing a period of adjustment; for all the politicking Horner was well liked and sadness at his departure had been expressed by many.
Paul Monaghan, Red Bull’s chief engineer, whom Horner recruited in his first year in charge in 2005, reflected what many were feeling about both past and future. “It was a shock to me and it was sad, Christian’s put a large chunk of his working life into the team,” Monaghan said.
“Laurent has got quite a difficult situation to be dropped in. So now it’s up to us to pull together as a team because nine other teams can’t wait to fight us. So if we’re going to stand up to them, we have to stand as a team.”
The business as usual approach is intended to steady the ship and the management that ousted Horner are backing Mekies to do so. It is understood he is, as team principal and chief executive, being given full rein to do as he sees fit and is not considered in any way a caretaker manager, while Mintzlaff is expected to remain hands-off, although whether that remains the case might depend on quite how Mekies performs.
Certainly in one key area, that of the relationship between the team and the Verstappen camp, tensions have eased after Horner’s dismissal.
Whether Verstappen stays with Red Bull, however, still remains up in the air and he and his father’s attitude will surely be tempered by performance; the pressure is on Mekies from the off.
The Frenchman said in Spa that he had been given no reason for Horner’s dismissal but that the former team principal had been in touch and offered his support to Mekies, who felt morale remained strong at Red Bull despite the upheaval. “The first 24 hours was a big adjustment, because nobody was expecting it,” he said.
“No question, the first few hours after the announcement was a surprise and certainly a digestion phase for everyone. After that, I’ve only found a huge amount of support from everyone, they just want to go racing.”
The task facing him is immense not least in taking over the project of next year’s car being built to the biggest regulation change in over a decade and Red Bull’s first foray into building their own engines.
These are long-term considerations around which he can still exert an influence, but for the moment the focus is narrow which may be to the Frenchman’s advantage.
The nature of Formula One and its relentless march forward means a win for Verstappen would go an enormously long way to easing the pressure and beginning the process of putting the past to bed and building anew.
Certainly Verstappen has fine form here, Spa is a circuit he enjoys and with a host of upgrades for this race including a revised front wing he might be hopeful of making a decent fist of things under the new management but it is the dominant McLarens that look likely to once more hold the advantage.
In qualifying for Saturday’s sprint race Oscar Piastri claimed pole with a mighty lap, a full half a second clear of Verstappen in second and his McLaren team-mate Lando Norris in third. Lewis Hamilton finished in 18th having spun off on his hot lap in Q3. – Guardian
