Red Bull must remove key Christian Horner responsibility from Laurent Mekies ahead of 2026 rule changes

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The shock decision for Red Bull to replace Christian Horner caught everyone out in Formula 1, given how much success he has brought the team in the last 20 years.

Horner was brought in by the Austrian soft drinks company after they bought the Jaguar team and was tasked with turning them into a race-winning team.

After hiring Adrian Newey in 2007 following a disillusioned period for the design guru at McLaren, they spotted an opportunity in the 2009 regulations to produce a car capable of winning titles.

Despite being caught out by the genius Brawn GP car design, Red Bull would dominate the end of the V8 era in F1 with four Constructors and Drivers’ titles in a row.

It would take a few years before they were successful again with Max Verstappen, but now the team is going through a difficult period, and Horner is being held to blame.

Red Bull made the tricky decision to oust the 51-year-old due to a mix of track performance and demands from Verstappen’s camp, as rumours intensify that the Dutchman is seeking a move to Mercedes.

Laurent Mekies is going to replace Horner, and while the Frenchman is the latest team principal with an engineering background to take up the helm of a team, there is one responsibility Red Bull might have to rescind.

Red Bull should make Laurent Mekies focus on F1 team

Team structures in F1 are always difficult to get right, but they can be key to success in the long term. While the simultaneous running of Red Bull between Horner and Helmut Marko has worked for years, the former took on increasing responsibilities.

Red Bull expanded to having its own engine department for the 2026 regulations, bringing its power units in-house for the first time.

Horner was in charge of the operation, but according to journalist Lawrence Barretto, this could be a big undertaking for Mekies when discussing his appointment on the F1 Nation podcast.

“It feels like this is maybe the first step of many steps that they’re going to have to make to get this team back towards the powerhouse that they were when they were winning championships just a couple of years ago,” said Barretto.

“It would be a big job for Laurent, I think, to run the racing team and have an oversight over the power unit facility just because it is so green and that obviously isn’t his area of expertise.

“Probably is something that Austrian senior management will have to discuss. Because of all the success that Red Bull have had and very recently, the way the wheels have fallen off the wagon has been pretty extreme given there’s been no major overhaul of regulations that we’ve seen in the past.”

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

Laurent Mekies is only Red Bull’s second team principal

Horner joins a list of people who have left Red Bull in the last 18 months, who were part of their inner success circle.

Mekies is only the second team principal in the history of the Milton Keynes outfit, but it appears Red Bull thinks he will do a good job after turning around the fortunes at Racing Bulls.

After being run by Franz Tost for 18 years, the company replaced him in 2023 with the dual management structure of Mekies and ex-FIA executive Peter Bayer.

Such a structure could be implemented at Red Bull, with Mekies looking after the team day-to-day while somebody else is in charge of the power unit side. Red Bull could also promote Jody Egginton after their success with Racing Bulls 2025 car.

This is a similar structure that worked at Mercedes, with Toto Wolff holding the team principal role and Andy Cowell in charge of Mercedes High Performance Powertrains.

Whatever happens at the Milton Keynes outfit, there is sure to be more restructuring as they attempt to rectify this difficult period on track and satisfy the Verstappen camp.