Laurent Mekies now taking ‘exact opposite’ approach to Christian Horner after Red Bull resistance

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Laurent Mekies experienced his first victory with Red Bull at the Italian Grand Prix, after Max Verstappen dominated at Monza.

It was an impressive display from the Dutchman, who broke the 2003 record for fastest F1 race ever completed and set the fastest average speed on a lap during qualifying.

Verstappen finished 19 seconds ahead of Lando Norris, with Red Bull making a breakthrough behind the scenes that enabled them to beat McLaren at a track that was one of their weakest in 2024.

Much of this is thanks to the work of the engineers, but there has also been a change behind the scenes that Mekies has made, which signifies a different approach to former team boss Christian Horner, according to Ronald Vording on the Motorsport Netherlands podcast.

Laurent Mekies changing the narrative behind the scenes at Red Bull

The fallout between Christian Horner and the shareholders at Red Bull is well documented, with a power struggle taking place between him and the Austrian side of the business.

Horner always had the support of the Thai-majority owners, but when the results got worse on track, he was effectively on borrowed time. They voted to oust him in favour of Mekies, who has taken a different approach recently which has helped them improve their form on track according to Vording.

“It’s actually the opposite of what was going on around Horner. Because, especially in that whole power struggle with the shareholders, there was some resistance that Horner was selling those shareholders the story that ‘I’m the big man for success’ and that whole narrative collapsed this year,” said Vording.

“Mekies is now doing the exact opposite in saying ‘No, zero contribution. It’s about the team and it’s about Max’.”

Max Verstappen says Laurent Mekies applying ‘common-sense’ to Red Bull problems

Verstappen has praised Mekies for bringing his engineering acumen to the team and helping steer the squad in the right direction with ‘common-sense’ solutions.

“With Laurent having an engineering background, he’s asking the right questions to the engineers – common-sense questions – so I think that works really well,” said Verstappen in the Italian GP post-race press conference.

It is the first win for Verstappen since the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix in May and the first time this season that Red Bull has had a comfortable margin over rivals McLaren.

Any late surge in the championship will likely be for second place in the Constructors’ title at this stage, but it is encouraging signs for Red Bull in the second half of the season.