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Laurent Mekies has revealed that Christian Horner was the first person to text him and call him after it was announced that he was succeeding Horner at Red Bull. In a move that continues to surprise the paddock, Horner has been let go by the Austrian brand, and no official reason has been given.
Christian Horner was an integral part of the squad, and in many ways, the name Red Bull was synonymous with him. He was replaced by Laurent Mekies as team principal and CEO.
It is a big career jump for Mekies as well, who, not too long ago, was a sporting director at Ferrari. The shoes that he has to fill are big. Christian Horner built the team from the ground up and has been instrumental in leading the squad to 14 titles in 20 years.
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In the last 18 months, Red Bull has dropped a bit in terms of performance, and things have gone south. With the 2025 F1 title more or less out of the picture now for Max Verstappen, the team decided that it was time for a new direction and dropped Christian Horner.
Laurent Mekies has been selected as his successor, and he took over the team just a couple of weeks ago. Talking to Sky Sports, Mekies revealed that Christian Horner had been quite gracious throughout the process, as he was the first one to wish him luck and had been texting with Mekies during the race weekend as well. He said:
"He has been nothing else but supportive, even in the extremely difficult context for him. He was the first one to text, the first one to call [after the news]. Even this morning we messaged each other again. Is there any way, someone can do the same with Christian? No, or at least, certainly not me. But we will rely on the incredible strengths that there is in this team."
Martin Brundle feels Laurent Mekies-led Red Bull would be different than Christian Horner's
Martin Brundle felt that Red Bull's DNA was about to change from being a team under Christian Horner that was very active politically to a more laid-back approach. Horner was always looked at as one of the fiercer competitors in the paddock, and Mekies is a bit different. He said:
"Laurent is a smart guy, diligent, hardworking - he'll play a completely different role to what Christian did. I can't imagine him doing the politics. If you think back to the some of the pit wall, shouting at the race director when they were able to do that, really fighting those political corners - that's not going to happen anymore. It's a different deal now."
Laurent Mekies does have a tough task in front of him right now with where Red Bull is in the pecking order. It would be interesting to see what kind of job he's able to accomplish with the team in the next 12 months.
