Headline: Verstappen warms to Mekies’ straight-talking Red Bull, but says Horner-era emotion “will stay forever”
Max Verstappen’s world tends to be stripped down to the basics — throttle, brake, steering wheel — but even he allowed a little sentiment to creep in when asked about Red Bull’s post-Horner reality.
Speaking over the Singapore Grand Prix weekend, Verstappen offered a clear thumbs-up for new team principal Laurent Mekies, praising the Frenchman’s “very honest” style and easy fit inside the garage. Yet he didn’t hide what the previous chapter meant to him. Christian Horner was there when Verstappen won his first world title in 2021, and for all the trophies that followed, nothing quite matched the raw emotion of that breakthrough.
“It’s been working well so far,” Verstappen said of Mekies’ early imprint. “You’re not going to reinvent the whole car when you’ve just joined the team. Laurent has always been very honest about what he’s done, and I like that. He’s one of the guys — we get on very well.
“But before, with Christian at the helm, we achieved so many amazing things together. The feeling we had as a team in ’21, winning that championship… that’s something you remember forever.”
Horner’s departure after the British Grand Prix closed a 20-year run in which Red Bull built a dynasty, collecting a haul of world titles and ending Mercedes’ grip on the sport. Mekies’ appointment signaled a new mood and, as Verstappen put it, a “different strategy” inside Milton Keynes. That change hasn’t derailed results. Red Bull steadied the ship with victories at Monza and Baku, which nudged Verstappen back into the discussion for a late-season title surge.
With six rounds to go, Verstappen had chipped the gap to championship leader Oscar Piastri down to 63 points — still a hefty climb, but not impossible when you’re in a Red Bull that’s found its range again. He doesn’t care for the “hunter vs hunted” narrative that inevitably follows such a chase.
“I’m probably the biggest critic of myself anyway,” he said. “It doesn’t matter what other people expect. I go into it with exactly the same mindset as when you are the hunted, or now the hunter, or whatever you call it. I prefer to keep it simple. The car has a throttle pedal, brake pedal, and a steering wheel, and that’s what I have to deal with.”
That simplicity isn’t an affectation. Verstappen’s ability to compartmentalize is one of his sharpest weapons — and he’s not shy about saying so. “You can overcomplicate things a lot,” he added. “A lot of people try to overcomplicate stuff in racing. You just need to keep it simple. As soon as someone tries to overcomplicate things, I switch off. It’s wasted energy.”
If Mekies’ “one of the guys” approach sounds a world away from Horner’s larger-than-life presence, Verstappen didn’t draw lines in the sand. This is evolution, not a reset. He appreciates the clarity, the lack of fuss, and a leadership style that listens as much as it directs. And he’s clearly energized by the path ahead. “I enjoy working with Laurent,” he said. “I’m very excited for the coming years.”
For now, the job is the job: extract the maximum on Sundays, keep the pressure applied, and see if the numbers crack. Verstappen’s habit, when a title hangs in the balance, is to turn a season into a sequence of must-wins and make everyone else feel it. The Monza and Baku victories hinted at that rhythm returning. If Red Bull has indeed found something stable beneath Mekies, the final run-in could yet become uncomfortable for the rest.
There’s also the human side Verstappen rarely shows: the acknowledgment that certain seasons live under the skin. 2021 was that kind of year for Red Bull and their star driver — a collective, emotional exhale after a decade-long chase. Horner’s fingerprints are all over that memory. Mekies may be writing the next chapter with a different pen, but Verstappen’s not putting the old book back on the shelf.
Different leadership, same driver. Keep it simple, go fast, let the rest talk. And if the feelings from ’21 linger in the background? That’s not a distraction. That’s fuel.
