Laurent Mekies gives Red Bull a ‘clean slate’ after what shareholders felt the F1 team ‘lost’ under Christian Horner

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Laurent Mekies is about to take charge of his first Grand Prix as the new F1 CEO and team principal of Red Bull Racing after the parent company sacked Christian Horner.

The travelling circus of Formula 1 reconvenes this weekend at Spa for the Belgian Grand Prix after a three-week break since Lando Norris of McLaren won the British Grand Prix. But Red Bull kept tongues wagging in the break after relieving Horner of his command after 20 years.

Red Bull sacked Horner without telling him why the 51-year-old was being put on gardening leave just two days after the British GP. Mekies has now taken up the reins in Milton Keynes, as Red Bull promoted the 48-year-old from his position as the team principal of Racing Bulls.

Mekies is just the second team principal that Red Bull have known since the Austrian energy drink brand bought the ailing Jaguar team from Ford before the 2005 F1 season. Horner led Red Bull for all eight of their drivers’ titles, six constructors’ titles and 124 wins in 406 races.

Red Bull’s shareholders felt Christian Horner ‘lost’ the Formula 1 team the brand’s image

Mekies will now try to fix the mess that Horner left at Red Bull after the Briton failed to stop the team’s decline after winning 21 of the 22 Grands Prix in the 2023 F1 season. Horner was also engaged in a fight for total control at Red Bull, who finally felt that enough was enough.

READ MORE: All to know on sacked Red Bull team principal Christian Horner with net worth

And BBC Sport now reports that Red Bull’s shareholders even felt the Formula 1 team ‘lost’ the brand’s image towards the end of Horner’s tenure. The Red Bull brand is based on fun, edginess and disruption, but Horner’s controlling influence was changing the team’s image.

Now, Red Bull hope Mekies offers a ‘clean slate’ as the Frenchman comes from a technical background with years of experience as an F1 engineer. Mekies is also a softer, less prickly and less adversarial character, so could be asked to adopt a different approach to Horner’s.

Red Bull want to forge new relationships with their rivals, Formula 1 and the fanbase with Mekies at the helm. Fans at F1 75 booing Horner helped lead to Red Bull sacking the Briton, too, as the launch event showed their shareholders the disdain that some fans felt for him.

Christian Horner developed fierce rivalries with Toto Wolff and Zak Brown

Red Bull are discussing Horner’s pay-off which could exceed £110m after sacking the Briton from his position as their F1 CEO and team principal. Horner was even the head of Red Bull Powertrains after creating their engine division and even oversaw the Red Bull Junior Team.

Mekies has already agreed to decentralise control at Red Bull from Horner’s total oversight upon taking the helm in Milton Keynes ahead of the Belgian GP. But Red Bull will also hope the Frenchman does not develop the same fierce rivalries that Horner built in the paddock.

READ MORE: All you need to know about Red Bull team principal and CEO Laurent Mekies

Horner developed fierce rivalries with Mercedes F1 CEO and team principal Toto Wolff and McLaren CEO Zak Brown in recent years. The Briton often clashed with his counterparts on various topics and his approach once saw Wolff describe Horner as a ‘yapping little terrier’.

Brown has admitted he is ‘not surprised’ that Red Bull have sacked Horner, as well, after he oversaw ‘a lot of drama’ in the past couple of seasons that has ‘maybe been getting worse’. Even Adrian Newey left Red Bull due to Horner, who devalued his influence in their success.

Newey is one of several names to leave Red Bull in the last few seasons, with Rob Marshall joining McLaren and Jonathan Wheatley joining Sauber. McLaren have also hired Red Bull’s head of strategy Will Courtenay to be their new sporting director come the 2026 F1 season.

Horner stopped Courtenay joining McLaren until 2026 as an act of spite owing to his rivalry with Brown, with Red Bull forcing the strategist to see out his contract. Brown called Horner out for his ‘wholly inappropriate’ criticism of Norris after the 2024 Austrian Grand Prix, too.