Ralf Schumacher says Christian Horner never understood one of Laurent Mekies’ greatest strengths at Red Bull

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Red Bull Racing have gone in a new direction by hiring Laurent Mekies as their new team principal.

Christian Horner was by far the longest-serving team principal in the Formula 1 paddock before he lost his job at Red Bull.

After more than 20 years at the helm, Red Bull took F1 by surprise by relieving Horner of his duties after this year’s British Grand Prix.

Red Bull brought Laurent Mekies in as Horner’s replacement, bringing him in from Racing Bulls, where he held the same role.

There have been highs and lows in Mekies’ short time in charge, with Max Verstappen struggling to finish in the points at the Hungarian Grand Prix after winning the Sprint Race in Spa.

Yuki Tsunoda’s F1 future is a point of contention at Red Bull as well, but the most positive weekend of Mekies’ tenure just finished at the Italian Grand Prix.

Verstappen set the fastest lap in F1 history and won the fastest race in the sport’s history at Monza, and Ralf Schumacher thinks Red Bull are now benefiting from Mekies’ involvement already after stepping into Horner’s shoes.

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

Ralf Schumacher thinks Christian Horner didn’t ‘understand’ Red Bull technical requirements like Laurent Mekies

Schumacher was reflecting on the Italian Grand Prix on the Backstage Boxengasse Podcast.

Mekies refused to take credit for Red Bull’s success at Monza, and when he looked back at the weekend, Schumacher said: “Well, Christian Horner was someone who also loved motorsport and did a great job with Red Bull, but he’s more of a manager.

“And I believe that Christian Horner doesn’t understand these connections as quickly as a pure technician.

“And then there’s Mekies, who is a great talent, but also a great talent at bringing people together. He doesn’t think he’s that important; he just wants things to work.

“It reminds me a bit of Vasseur saying, ‘I don’t want to be at Ferrari, I want to win with Ferrari.’ And that’s pretty much Mekies’ attitude, too. He loves it and now, of course, he has a huge opportunity, but he understands every connection much better.

“Of course, because he has the technical expertise and the knowledge, and accordingly, when he is presented with something, he can immediately say, ‘Look, good, great, it looks good, but we still have to go in this direction, in that direction, and five times around him, I would estimate, maybe even eight, depending on how many positions there are.’”

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

Laurent Mekies becomes the latest engineer to become a Formula 1 team principal

The trend of having a more engineer-focused team principal has been increasing for several seasons now.

Andrea Stella is the perfect example at McLaren, and looks set to lead the team to back-to-back constructors’ championship wins very soon.

Ferrari’s Fred Vasseur studied aeronautical engineering, James Vowles has an engineering background before focusing on strategy, and Ayao Komatsu at Haas arrived in his current role with a similar background.

There are exceptions, such as Toto Wolff at Mercedes and Flavio Briatore at Alpine, but a shift is taking place in the paddock that Mekies falls into.

Verstappen and Mekies came to a consensus on setup changes at Monza, which paid off perfectly in qualifying and Sunday’s race.

With a brand new set of regulations on the horizon, having Mekies in charge to keep a close eye on the team’s progression behind the scenes makes a lot of sense, especially as Red Bull prepare their first Formula 1 power unit.