24/08/2025 13:50
New Red Bull boss Laurent Mekies has explained how he enjoys "very
good relationships" with key rivals, in contrast to former boss
Christian Horner. Racing Bulls boss Mekies was promoted to Red Bull
CEO and team principal on July 9th, following Horner's dismissal
from Red Bull after 20 years at the helm. Throughout his time in
charge, Horner had fractious relationships with the likes of
McLaren CEO Zak Brown and Mercedes counterpart Toto Wolff. All F1
bosses are involved in the F1 Commission - the body which meets to
discuss and evaluate proposed changes to the regulations, with
Mekies already a member through his work at Racing Bulls. However,
given the different position of Red Bull as a leading team, the
dynamics of Mekies' relationship with fellow team bosses would
alter slightly. Addressing his relationship with the bosses Horner
had tension with, Mekies explained his "truth." "Competition on
track is one thing, but having discussions together to define the
positions for the future of the sport on key strategic decisions
that we need to make is something normal between competitors,"
Mekies told media , including RacingNews365. "As much as we will
disagree and simply defend our short-term or mid-term interest, the
truth is we have a very good relationship with Zak, with Andrea
[Stella], but also with Toto and Fred [Vasseur] and Mattia
[Binotto] and all the other guys. "It is a very good group and I
think the F1 Commission has done enough together to be conscious
that if we truly want the sport to be at the highest level it is
right now, it deserves a group which tries to tune down their
short-term and mid-term intetest, to discuss with the FIA and F1 on
how to drive it forward. "That's what we try to do, we don't hide
our bias, but we try to be constructive about how to go about it."
