venkyhere wrote: ↑12 Sep 2025, 09:04
In my opinion, Horner had great leadership qualities and had the ability to convince the best car designer to stick with the team for ~20 yrs or so, and he must have been a great man manager, to recruit and build a 'sharp' team in all different aspects that an F1 org calls for. More than anything, he believed in 'all or nothing', was a risk taker - RBPT is a pretty brave and highly risky move. But his biggest flaw (just like Toto Wolff) is that he isn't an engineer. So there is no way for him to call the bluff of his technical team. In that way, Mekies being the 'buck stops with him' guy, is in a much better position to recognize technical faux pas and mainly to 'take responsibility' for a technical direction choice the team needs to make at various points. Particularly so, in this next regulation era where both engine and chassis are changing. Some bold and brave decisions need to be made. The 'our own engine' that has fallen into Mekies' lap, it isn't something he is comfortable with (I'm sure) , yet he has to be the 'buck stops with him' guy about the entire powertrain team. In that regard, Mekies is the better guy to 'make technical calls' rather than Horner who would have to blindly trust the Technical Director. In a way, having a technical CEO/TP, frees up the technical team as well. Someone 'above' is going to be the 'responsible person' and they can work with more freedom/brave-choices. But regarding the large chunk of 'other roles' that a CEO/TP has to play -- people management, money, sponsors, future roadmap etc etc -- all uncharted waters for Mekies (all of which Horner excelled at). So we need to 'wait and see'.
You are overstating the amount of technical knowledge that a single person has in a team. Mekies will have to be a special one to have anywhere near as much success as Horner had on track.
And it is fair to absolutely say that the 2026 car will have had essentially no input from Mekies. It will be on Wache's head. But then every car since 2018 was on Wache's head and he turned out to be quite a capable guy.
Newey leaving RB now is obviously an issue, but it’s not 2010 anymore and the team will keep running as long as the team structure remains coherent.
If the chassis is good next year, most credit will go to whatever people Horner put in place including the likes of Wache, Balbo, Skinner and Waterhouse. If the chassis is bad, it will fall on the same people.
Hodgkinson is on the line with the RBPT project as well.
In the end, Red Bull is the most successful team this regulation cycle. I think they can and should be proud of the job they did, especially after 2021. With the cost cap restriction and the lack of wind tunnel, something had to catch up at some point. 2024 was unfortunately that and McLaren found something very cool in the meantime. I said this at the start of this year and will say it again - Red Bull won this cycle. I am sure Red Bull will take winning 5/8 titles than 3/8 titles and being useless for a good while.
Call a spade, a spade.
