26/07/2025
NEWS STORY
Christian Horner's iconic suggestion to Toto Wolff no doubt ringing in his ears, Laurent Mekies is set to take his predecessors' advice.
"Fix your f****** car!" Horner famously told the Mercedes boss, who might well now feel inclined to make the same suggestion to Red Bull.
The failure of a string of drivers to get anywhere near Max Verstappen, as well as proving the Dutchman's genius, has also highlighted the fact that it wasn't the drivers at fault but the car.
With his new team seemingly in free fall, and continued speculation over Verstappen's future, Mekies insists that fixing the car takes priority over everything else.
"In terms of priority, I'm sure Max wants a fast car," said the Frenchman, "and if we get him a fast car, I'm sure it's cancelling out all the other considerations.
"So really the focus is very much to try to get to know the team as quickly as possible in order to see how we can support, how we can build the next step of competitiveness in order to get a fast car and hence to make it an easy call for Max."
Some might say that, like his new team's various 'support' drivers, Mekies is accepting a poisoned chalice, not only in terms of the car and Verstappen but the loss of so many high-profile team members over the last two seasons.
Asked how about he learned of Horner's sacking and his own promotion, he said: "I got a call a few hours before you guys were made aware. I got a call from Oliver (Mintzlaff, the managing director of Red Bull GmbH) and Helmut, and they asked me if I would be interested to do the job.
"Obviously it came out of the blue at that moment for me," he added. "I was actually in the UK at Racing Bulls and it came in a completely unexpected way.
"I actually asked them to think about it for a few hours and hung up the phone," he admitted. "Obviously, it's difficult to digest, but the first thing that then comes into your mind, you say, 'Well, wait a second, it's Red Bull. They are calling you, they're asking you to step in to do that job, with everything that Red Bull means... it's energy, it's spirit, how they go about their racing teams, and that's how you pick up the phone and you say, 'Of course, it's an honour, it's a privilege', as we said."
The Frenchman also revealed that far from disappearing into a corner and sulking, Horner has been a source of support in the last couple of weeks.
"He has been nothing other than supportive, which is very impressive in the context. Nobody is going to replace his character, nobody is going to replace him like for like. I come in to do the CEO and team principal job.
"Is there any way anyone can do it in the same way as Christian? No," he added. "At least certainly not me. We will be relying on the incredible strengths of everybody in this team. Everybody is stepping up.
"It's certainly an opportunity to look for even more empowerment of our people. We will certainly look at this phase as a way to get our incredible people to step up and to create together the next competitive advantage for the next regulation phase."
Check out our Saturday gallery from Spa here.