Mekies opens up about his promotion from Racing Bulls to Red Bull

Having been promoted as the Red Bull's team boss after the British Grand Prix, Laurent Mekies revealed that Red Bull's request came "in a completely unexpected way", and he first asked for some time to make a final decision before accepting the offer.

Just two days after the British Grand Prix, Red Bull Racing announced that Christian Horner would leave the team with immediate effect.

The Briton has been at the helm for almost the entire team's history in F1 but his exit follows a couple of troublesome years of internal struggles since Red Bull owner Dietrich Mateschitz passed away.

Horner has been in charge of Red Bull since the team entered the sport in 2025, serving as team principal for two decades. During that time, the 51-year-old Briton has led Red Bull to six constructors' and eight drivers' world championship titles.

Red Bull elected to promote Laurent Mekies to lead the Milton Keynes-based outfit.

Mekies began his career at Arrows before working as a race engineer at Minardi. He was promoted to chief engineer at Toro Rosso prior to becoming the safety director and, later, deputy race director at the FIA.

Prior to his time with Red Bull GmbH, he served as sporting director and deputy team principal at Ferrari from 2018 to 2023.

Asked to reflect on the process of his promotion, Mekies revealed that Red Bull's request came "in a completely unexpected way", and he first asked for some time to make a final decision before accepting the offer.

"Well, it was not very different for me than it was for you, really, guys. I got a call a few hours before you guys were made aware. I got a call from Oliver [Mintzlaff] and Helmut [Marko], 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. 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.

"It’s difficult to digest. But the first thing that comes into your mind is, “Wait a second. It’s Red Bull. They are calling you. They ask you to step in to do that job , with everything that Red Bull means – its energy, its 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.”

"First thought obviously goes in this moment as well to Christian because it’s not something I could have expected. And he had been nothing else than extremely supportive with me these last two years.

Reflecting on how he dealt with the situation that he replaced Horner who was one of his supporters when he was offered a leader position at Racing Bulls, Mekies stated: "It’s not a secret that he’s the one with Oliver and Helmut that brought me back to the Red Bull family a couple of years ago. So that’s the sort of mix of emotions you get at that moment.

"But as I said, the dominant one is: it’s Red Bull calling. I guess it’s a matter of loyalty to go towards the brand and you just say, “Of course, if you think you need me there, I will go there," the Frenchman concluded.