Red Bull Insider Describes Christian Horner Replacement as ‘Right Decision’

Red Bull Racing’s main advisor, Helmut Marko, described the replacement of Christian Horner with Laurent Mekies as the right decision, because he thinks that a “technician at the top” benefits the team on the technical front.

Horner was the first director of the Red Bull team and played the role for two decades before being ousted after the British Grand Prix 2025. The reason for its sudden release was not revealed, but speculations suggest that the difficulties of the team’s performance since mid-2010 have led to their departure.

Horner was replaced by an immediate effect by Mekies, which was promoted from the Red Bull Junior F1 team, Racing Bulls. While Red Bull was a huge success under the leadership of Horner, winning six manufacturers’ championships between 2010 and 2023, Marko thinks that the technical history of Mekies are more suitable for this role. Addressing Servus TV, quoted by the planet F1, the 81 -year -old advisor said:

“I think it was the right decision.

“In the complexity of Formula 1, a technician at the top is probably the best solution, everything is then built more on the technical side.”

Marko also highlighted Max Verstappen’s clean scanning in Monza, while he won the race with a difference of almost 20 seconds in Lando Norris. The race marked Red Bull’s first victory in almost four months, given the previous victory of the Dutch at Imola on May 18. Marko said:

“I believe that with the speed we have shown, we would be at the front of almost all the circuits – let’s hope it under our own vapor.

“It works because the whole team works optimally together, that drivers are also involved in the configuration and we can now use the potential optimal.”

Red Bull dominated the first two and a half years of the era of the floor effect of 2022. A striking difference from the previous season is that Verstappen does not lead the pilot championship, given the domination of McLaren. Despite his victory in Monza, he was not in the running for a fifth victory in the championship. Marko, however, positively looks at the form of Red Bull after the Italian GP. He said:

“The world championship is over, but some victories would still be good.”

Revealing how the Red Bull returned to his winning ways after a period of car problems, Mekies said:

“In this kind of moment, you are thinking of the team at Milton Keynes and it’s a difficult start to the season.

“When things don’t work as you would like them to work, when you miss this ultimate rhythm, you question everything. This is how we are, the way the competition is.

“What is great is that the team has kept an open mind. They questioned everything in a very constructive way, and it was a lot of hard work.

“You do not always get positive comments of the track as we have obtained [at Monza]. But they pushed hard, without abandoning, and even if Monza is a specific provision, blah, blah, blah, it made them a lot of merit of several weeks, several months of hard work. “”