“Nothing more”: Christian Horner’s replacement downplays his part in RB’s recent success

Christian Horner's Red Bull replacement, Laurent Mekies (team principal), has downplayed his contribution in the outfit's recent triumph in the 2025 Italian Grand Prix. Star driver Max Verstappen secured a dominant victory over the McLaren drivers.

Horner, who led the charge of Red Bull from 2005 onwards, was sacked by the team on July 9, 2025. Shortly after, it was announced that Laurent Mekies would move up from Racing Bulls to the main team to take over the Brit's duties.

In last week's Italian Grand Prix race weekend at the Autodromo Nazionale Monza circuit, Max Verstappen surprisingly had the upper hand on the McLaren drivers, given the inconsistent nature of the RB21. This allowed Verstappen to not only secure a sensational pole position but also to amass his third win of the 2025 season (as indicated above).

In line with the Milton Keynes-based team's performance, Laurent Mekies has recently refrained from taking any credit for it. Via an interaction with Motorsportweek, he added the following:

"It’s 1,500 people working on making that car faster. So these are the addition of these talents that make the car faster, that make the hundreds and make the thousands. And make the set of options available and make the new components available. So the short answer is zero."

"You know, our only role is to make sure that the talents we have are put in the right conditions to express their talent as best. That’s the only thing we are doing. That’s the extent of the contribution and that’s it, nothing more."

Max Verstappen won the Italian Grand Prix #1 Red Bull challenger by a margin of over 19 seconds over second-placed Lando Norris.

Christian Horner had an 'incredible journey' with Red Bull

Christian Horner and Max Verstappen - Source: Getty

While Laurent Mekies has not taken credit for Red Bull's Italian GP success, Christian Horner, the former boss, came up with an in-depth message following his sacking in July by the team. In line with this, the latter looked back on his long journey and added the following via his official Instagram account(July 10):

"After an incredible journey of twenty years together, it is with a heavy heart that today I say goodbye to the Team I have absolutely loved. Every one of you, the amazing people at the factory, have been the heart and soul of everything that we have achieved. Win and lose, every step of the way, we have stood by each other as one and I will never forget that."

Christian Horner is one of the most experienced names in the world of the pinnacle of motorsport. Under his tenure, the sport saw the arrival of four-time world champion Sebastian Vettel (former driver) and also the reigning and four-time champion Max Verstappen.