Laurent Mekies: relishing Red Bull challenge

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1:09When Laurel Mechies became Red Bull Racing Team Principal and CEO in 2025, he had a big decision to make. With the new regulations coming for 2026, with the new Power Unit projects, there were all the reasons in the world to say, well, you know what? Let's turn the page. 25 did not work. Let's concentrate on 26. You would have been mad to do anything differently. The truth is, Tom, nobody wanted to turn the page. That's how deep is the fighting spirit in the team. Max Verstappen nearly completed one of the greatest comebacks of all time, missing out on the title by just two points. But after a difficult start to the new era of Formula One, are Red Bull now paying the price for that incredible turnaround last year?

1:58We still think it was the right thing to do. Does it have an impact on where you start? 26, of course it does. But we are in full attack mode. If you walk in Milton Keynes right now, there is fire in every single department. The burning fire of wanting to go back as fast as possible to a more competitive car.

2:22Hello and welcome to F1 Beyond the Grid with me, Tom Clarkson. Laurent Macchiez has had a whirlwind couple of years. When we last spoke at the start of 2024, he'd just become a team principal for the first time with racing bulls. But just a year and a half into that role, he was promoted to Red Bull Racing, who were having problems both on and off the track. Laurent led their recovery at the end of 2025, but in a new era of regulations, when Red Bull are making their own power units for the first time, they've slipped down the pecking order. Laurent tells me in this conversation how big the move to Red Bull was for him personally, the reasons they didn't switch focus entirely to 2026 when he joined, and why he doesn't see this as a transitional period for the team, despite a lot of change.

3:14Laurent also shares great insight into what Max Verstappen is like outside the car, in debriefs and at marketing events. And with the Max to Mercedes rumours still lingering in the paddock, I had to ask him if he's worried about Max leaving at the end of the year. We caught up just before the Japanese Grand Prix and Laurent was more candid than I've ever previously heard him.

3:40How are you? Lovely to see you again. Very good to see you, Tom. It's been a while. Well, it's been two years, actually, since you were last on the pod. And a lot has changed since then. You were just starting out as team principal of Racing Bulls back then. Amazing career trajectory since then. You're now running Red Bull Racing. Just sum up what's gone on in the last two years and how different your life is now. You know what to say. It's been a bit of a crazy two years. but you know today as in every other opportunities before you know you you feel honored you feel privileged you feel lucky in that case to join such an incredible team and to have a chance to you know to shoot for the wins again and fight for the for the titles again and that's what we are loving and that's what we dream of doing year after year and and to have this opportunity is incredible.

4:38Can we talk about the job, right? Team principal at both places, but how different is the job at Red Bull Racing compared to where you were? You know, the circumstances were very, very different. When I left Ferrari to join Racing Bulls, I had an imposed, you know, seven or eight months gardening leave. And obviously you are home. you only think about how you are going to tackle the next challenge. So you pretty much have these permanent iterations about how you will go about it, about what people you want to take with you in the adventures. Not to mention that I knew the team from 10 years before, you know, when I used to work there.

5:24So when the adventure starts, which is pretty much when we did the interview two years ago, when the adventure started, you are already in execution mode. You know, you are there, you have this plan, you reconnect with the people and you try to execute the plan. Starting with the record racing was the exact opposite of all that. There was obviously no warning. There was nothing like having the time to think about it or pick up your team or referring to what you knew of the team from prior experience. So everything you knew about the team principal job, pretty much you have to throw it in the bin.

5:58and the only priority was let's try to meet as many people as I can. Let's try to understand how this team is working. Let's try to see how we can support. And that's what happened the first few weeks and months really trying to meet all the incredible people opening all the doors of the campus in Milton Keynes and try to see all the magic, all the secrets that his team is known for in inventing these fast cars and meeting the people behind it. So a complete different approach compared to what had been the debut in racing bulls. But, you know, it's an incredible feeling because we are in a people business.

6:41You meet incredible people. Getting this opportunity makes you meet unbelievable people. And you don't win as much as Oracle Railroad Racing has won in the last two decades by luck. you win because you have geniuses behind every door. That's the privilege you have when you get that type of job is to get to know these people and try to support them. What is your job description? What is the most important aspect of being team principal for you? The only thing we do, you are going to be very disappointed. The only thing we do is to make sure our people have what they need to work. That's the only thing we do.

7:22But what does that mean? It's like you're empowering people, right? It means create the best working environment for your people to express their talents. So yes, it means empowering them as much as you can. And it means make sure that you have the right people and you keep the right people. Politics, how much of it is politics? Because not only are you trying to make the fastest car, you're also trying to slow down the opposition, right? Or not? You know what? This team is striking me and I'm sure quite a few others in how close to pure racing it is. Every single person on the campus is trying to make the car 1 ,000 of a second faster and is obsessed about that.

8:10And all we try to do as a team principle on top of the people aspect is to make sure that our group is not disturbed or slowed down or distracted by what you call the politics, but can actually focus on what they love to do and what they are so good at. So really, is there a lot of politics in the job? Of course there is. But the way we look at it is let's try to keep that to the minimum. Let's concentrate on getting a fast car. If you get a fast car, everything else gets sorted. Christian Horner did the job before you for 20 years. How different is your way? You know, at first, you need to give a huge credit to Christian's results.

8:55Speak for themselves. They have been historical. And, you know, Christian was leading that team, making it grow. And therefore, you know, hats off to what has been done. I don't think leadership style matters. You can find up and down the pit lane and in any business, very, very different style of leadership. I think what matters is that as a leader, that you take care of your people, that you put them in the heart of the project and that you get them the environment for them to express this talent. And that's what matters. How you do that, in which style do you do that, really doesn't. Only the results will tell.

9:34Talking of results, just how sweet were those wins in the back end of last season? How did that make you feel? It made me feel so happy for the girls and the guys in the team because they had such a difficult start of the season last year. The car was not performing at the level they were hoping. Pressure was high. You come to the middle of the season and you get a new boss. There were all the reasons in the world, with the new regulations coming for 2026, with the new power unit projects, there were all the reasons in the world to say, well, you know what, let's turn the page. 25 did not work.

10:14Let's concentrate on 26. You had really, you would have been mad to do anything differently, to want to do things differently. And the truth is, Tom, nobody wanted to do that in Milton Keynes. Nobody wanted to turn the page. They all wanted to get to the bottom of that 25 car, get to the bottom of what didn't work to the level expected, and turn things around. and yes they knew there would be a price to pay for later but that's how deep is the fighting spirit in the team and so when they all put the extra effort to try to understand what was limiting us try to bring upgrades and solutions to cure the issues we had taking huge amount of risk in doing so it has not been a smooth second part of the year we had the many wins but we also had extremely painful races I'm sure you recall Zandvoort or Budapest or maybe Saturday in Brazil.

11:11So all these successes came with that incredible spirit of the team there that didn't want to give up. All the successes came from the massive risk-taking that the team had to take in that short amount of time to turn things around. So to your point, when you eventually win, the thoughts are for the incredible spirit of the people and the hard work they've put into it. That's a pretty big shout for you, though. You've just come in the job and you're having to say, OK, we're going to stick with the 25 car and not put everything on 26. I assume that came down. You ultimately had to make that call within days of getting the job.

11:50But that was easy because nobody wanted to give up. And do you think you're paying the price this year for that? We thought and we still think it was the right thing to do because we felt that turning the page to 26 would have been a little bit of an easy escape and a wishful thinking that next year will be better, even though we didn't fully understand what was the limitation of 25. We didn't think it was the right way. Now, of course, the time and energy we invested for the late push last year, does it have an impact on where you start? 26, of course it does. So, of course, we pay a bit of the price today.

12:29Do we use it as an excuse? No, we are not happy with the starting point, but we think we will get through these difficulties. We will, as we did last year, we will get the full understanding of the limitations. And this team has been very, very good in turning things around and we have another chance to do it this year. Do you think then that this is a period of transition for Red Bull Racing? The reason I ask that is obviously you've gone from the ultra successful partnership with Honda. You've now got powertrains. We'll come on to more of that later. But also a lot of the senior personnel have changed.

13:11Gone. I mean, you've replaced Christian. Helmut's gone. Adrian Newey's gone. Craig Skinner's gone. Will Courtney's gone. We sort of go on, right? Does it feel that you're in transition or is there enough depth to carry on as you were, if you like? We try to do everything we can to make sure this is not a transition year. Despite the size of the challenge, despite the new power unit challenge, despite the changes you have mentioned, we want to make sure that we are not in a transition year, Tom. So we want to make sure that we don't say, well, you know what, 2026 was the transition between Chapter A and Chapter B, and therefore, no, no, no, no, we are not at all in that mode.

13:56We are in full attack mode, as we said, not happy about the starting point. But if you walk in Milton Keynes right now, there is fire in every single department. There is a burning fire of wanting to go back as fast as possible to a more competitive car, to a better position. And, you know, we finished the preseason testing thinking we were forced teams, even though you guys didn't believe us. it hurts we don't want to stay there and that's what you feel in in in me tonkins today is that burning drive to get enough understanding and development to the car in a way that we can outperform the development of the competition and get back up so it doesn't look like a transition year when you say you're the the fourth fastest team i do believe you is it the power unit holding you back?

14:53Is it a chassis holding you back? When you compare yourselves to Mercedes, for example? Look, we think it's 360. So we don't think there is one area or another that is to be focused on. This, as such, is already an incredible achievement. The fact that the power unit is not identified as being a specific weakness, but more simply an area like every other area to be improved in order to be at the level of the benchmark which is Mercedes today is already has such an incredible achievement the fact that you know this point it was not existing three or four years ago the factory was not existing we had no people and now we are 700 people there we have this incredible partnership with Ford and we turned up at the first race and and it felt very normal and the only thing we are looking at is gap to first place which is substantial now but we are all pointing towards looking at what we need to do to close that gap.

15:56So it's not one area. As you said, we have pushed very late on the chassis development last year. So yes, we pay a price in the initial phase of the seasons. The engine project is super new. The guys and the girls have done an unbelievable job. But of course, we accept that competition is at a better level right now and it's going to be a learning race, 2026, and it's going to be a development race. And it's two races that we embrace and we are diving into. Has the performance of the PU surprised you in a pleasant way? Let me put it this way. Seeing the car exiting the garage in Barcelona, first pre-season test day, without any shakedown, we are one of the few teams, if not the only one, not to have shakedown before Barcelona.

16:49Seeing that car getting out at 9.00 in the morning and doing 100 laps on that first day, I think was an incredible reward for the work that everyone has been doing in Milton Keynes, days and nights, weekends. It's been a very, very intense last few months. It's been very intense last three or four years. Certainly the last few months, I can guarantee you that they were very far from comfort zone and a lot of extra efforts from everyone, from the family to support also their partner in long hours at work and to see that cars going out and to see that suddenly we only talk about performance and we only talk about chasing the three teams that are faster than us right now is an incredible achievement.

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19:51I'm talking to the engineer in you now. Can you tell us a little more about the scale of the project for powertrains? How big a job was it to get that up and running? So much praise, and rightly so, has been put on Cadillac, starting a Formula One team from scratch. how big a job is it to start your own powertrains company look i think it's a it's a crazy challenge i think it's a crazy decisions to be made to to decide to do your own power in it it's probably the sort of decision that only red bull can take it's a sort of decision that is very close to red bull dna you know you try to do something that looks impossible and you eventually make it make it happen so it's it's a challenge we are proud of again hats off to everyone who was there three or four years ago and kickstarted the project.

20:41And with the Red Bull ambition, with the Red Bull visions, made it happen. Now we are more than 700 people in that power unit entity. The best way to describe it is that we already forget that we are a new power unit manufacturer and we are looking at the last few kilowatts that we are missing compared to competition. and we are looking at the next optimizations in order to be able to close that gap. And when you look at how the PU division is integrated with the rest of the team, is it very different to Ferrari? Because of course you spent five years at the Scuderia. Is it a very different setup that you have?

21:21You know, actually, I still remember being at Ferrari when the decision of Red Bull doing their own power unit with Ford at the time was made public. And we looked at each other and we said, wow, you know, how difficult that must be to start from zero because we were saying, look, we are having our own meeting to talk about the next generation of power unit that we will all have to design and produce. And then when we leave the meeting room, we go back to the departments and the department starts working on this project. We said, these guys, they have to be from scratch. there is no, you know, they may have the meetings together to decide what they want to do next, but certainly when they go back to their departments, there is nothing there yet.

22:07I would say, how crazy that must be. So, you know, to your questions about how different it is, you know, it's even though it's only us and Ferrari now having both power unit and chassis on the same site, the projects are completely different because one has been doing it for 90 years and we have been doing it for 90 days, not 90 days, but for three years now and for not even 90 days in racing. That's how different and difficult it is. You say that it's something only Red Bull would do. Does that imply that Red Bull's commitment to Formula One is greater today than it's ever been? I think it does imply that, absolutely, Tom.

22:52That's what it means. You know, when Mr. Matesh took the decisions to do the Red Bull for Powertrain, of course, it's a decision that automatically link Red Bull with a sport for a huge number of years to come. And hence, it creates another layer of bond between Red Bull and Formula One. We had one team, we had two teams, we had the circuit, etc., etc., in Austria. and now there's a power unit operation. So, of course, it's been an incredible journey for Red Bull with Formula One in the last 22 years. And it's one that is meant to continue. You told me once, I think, that Red Bull have, is it 60 different sporting entities?

23:41Am I right? Is that the right figure? 62 maybe? Is Formula One the biggest of those? I guess it is with powertrains. But in terms of the sort of marketing objectives, is Formula One still the biggest? Yes, it is. That's a short answer. So, you know, Red Bull footprint in the sport, in global sport in general, is unique. And it goes from, you know, football to rugby to Formula One, of course, to hockey and to, you know, so many sports, so many images that come to your mind when you think about Red Bull in the sports, depending on how much risk you want to put in the sport that you are doing. But yes, it's the biggest single project.

24:26Oracle Railway Racing is the biggest single project, yes. All right. And you have, if not the single biggest driver on your books, one of the sport's biggest stars in Max Verstappen. Let's talk about the drivers. Let's talk about Max, first of all. You've been getting to know him over the last six months, nine months. What impresses you the most about the full-time champ? You know, the biggest surprise is how deep the connections between Max and Motorsport, Motorsport and Max is. He's not just a Formula One driver. He lives night and day for the sport. He completely understands the complex dynamics of a Formula One car and of a Formula One team.

25:12you leave him a few hours of freedom he will go and race on this simulator you you give him a few days of freedom he will go and race whatever he can find on the planet and having somebody like that that can support you driving the car development especially through new regulations like the one we have today is is is a huge advantage sounds like you'd be a good team principle one day right i'm sure it could be an excellent principle one day and that probably applies to to many other different job in in motorsport he said on many occasions that one of the aspects is he loves working with the team can you see that is he a natural leader you know max has this i still didn't uh didn't decide if it is a conscious or unconscious uh skills that have, but he has this natural way to get people around him to understand what is important for him in the car and what is, according to him, the biggest lap time reservoir that are untapped around him.

26:25And he knows that when he speaks into a debriefing, he not only have, you know, the 30 engineers around him in the room, but also all the ones that are connected back in the factory in Milton Keynes. And he has this natural way to drag everyone behind him and to get people to give the 101%. It's something to be fast in the car. It's something else to be outside of the car and to manage to get your team, your people, to give their very best in trying to understand and to solve the limitations that you have. And it's very nice to stay now in a quiet room, but for him to be able to do that a few minutes after he's driving the car, and it can be a qualifying session, it can be a race that could have had a bad or a good outcome.

27:17And to be able to do that with the level of discipline he has, with the level of cold feedback he's able to give is outstanding. And, you know, if you come to one of the debriefing we have after our sessions, after qualifying or after the race, you will not be able to understand from his tone of voice if it was a win or if it was a DNF that you won't forget about. Because he's already moved on to the next race. Because he will describe it with the same intensity, because he will analyze the issue and the limitations with the same discipline, whether he has won the race or whether he has been outperformed by competition.

27:59You keep using the word discipline when you talk about Max. Can you just tell us a little more about what you mean by that? His discipline in terms of how he, the thoroughness in which he talks about the car or the discipline with which he lives his life to dedicate it to the team and to Formula One? What do you mean by it? You know, it's both really. Max is unbeatable at everything he does. Try to... Paddle. No, I'm not talking about paddle. I don't know about paddle. But, you know, if you ask him to come to a marketing event or a sponsor event, he will do it with the same discipline and the same dedication that he does.

28:39He's everything. He knows it's important. He knows it's part of the jobs. He knows there is a bigger picture behind the emotion he has at that moment. And he's going to give the best version of himself in all these circumstances. And I can only imagine that he's able to do that because he has that mental structure, mental discipline that allows him to perform. And, you know, and sometimes we have a bad quality, we have a bad race. And I don't feel like talking because that's how the emotions flows in some of the bad moments. And you need a few seconds to digest and to, you know, go back to supporting your team.

29:19And he's obviously going through the same emotional sequence as any of the team members. But he's able to do that at an extraordinary level. And when he gets out of the car, comes to the office, he's going to go back to the cold analysis of what needs to be improved. What about inside the car? When you look at his data, what's he doing where you just go, that's amazing. Is there one aspect of the way he drives on the limit that leaves you open-mouthed? The consistency with which he is showing extraordinary speed without making any mistakes, session after session, qualifying session after qualifying sessions, race after race, is probably the most outstanding part.