Carlos Sainz isn’t hedging his bets on Red Bull’s new era. Asked about Laurent Mekies stepping into the hot seat after Christian Horner’s abrupt exit, the Spaniard didn’t blink: Red Bull, he says, picked the right operator for a difficult moment.
It’s been a bruising 18 months for a team that used to make winning look routine. Red Bull sits fourth in the 2025 Constructors’ standings, the decision to move on from Horner following a fraught British Grand Prix, and Mekies — promoted from RB — handed the keys to a trophy room built on eight Drivers’ and six Constructors’ titles.
Sainz worked with Mekies at Ferrari and knows the playbook. “He’s an extremely good professional,” he said. “Incredibly hardworking, and he understands drivers. He had a special communication with us that made things open and comfortable.” The CV is tidy, too: FIA, Ferrari, RB, now Red Bull. “Honestly the perfect fit for that team. He deserves the step up.”
The start, inevitably, has had some grit. Mekies has overseen two race weekends so far, the latest in Hungary a grind where Max Verstappen could only salvage ninth and Yuki Tsunoda’s scoreless run stretched to seven races. That kind of Sunday used to feel unthinkable in Milton Keynes. Now, it’s the baseline they’re trying to lift.
Mekies isn’t sugar-coating the brief. “At a top team, the target is to win,” he said. “Every weekend the question is simple: did you win or not? That sets the expectation and the push you apply to every single sector.” He calls the challenge “not overwhelming,” pointing to a factory full of people “only there to win” and stressing resilience as the currency that turns rough weekends into future steps forward.
There’s a lot riding on this appointment, and the timing isn’t subtle. The 2026 rules reset is coming fast; the 2025 season is disappearing even faster. If Red Bull’s balance sheet right now is more reality check than victory parade, Mekies’ skill set — detail-heavy, driver-attuned, calm under pressure — is exactly the kind of leadership Sainz believes steadies the ship.
Strip it down and the mandate is simple: restore standards. In F1’s midfield, progress can be incremental; at Red Bull, it’s binary. Win, or you didn’t. Mekies knows that better than most, and Sainz, who’s seen him up close, likes the odds. Now it’s down to execution — and how quickly Red Bull can turn uncomfortable Sundays into the only metric that counts.
