Yesterday at 08:20
Red Bull team principal Laurent Mekies has revealed the biggest
difference between leading the Austrian outfit and Racing Bulls,
describing the answer as "very simple". Mekies led Red Bull's
sister team from the start of the 2024 season until the conclusion
of this year's British Grand Prix, before being promoted to replace
Christian Horner. While the Frenchman has only been in his new role
for a few months, he has already identified key differences in the
challenges of leading each team. At Racing Bulls, Mekies gained
experience guiding a midfield team; however, at Red Bull, simply
collecting points is not considered a strong performance. According
to Mekies, the biggest difference lies in how a top team like Red
Bull reflects on a grand prix, with the outcome being judged by one
simple question: 'Did you win or not?' Asked how different leading
Red Bull is compared to Racing Bulls, Mekies said: "I gave you that
type of answer a few months ago, when wearing the Visa Cash App
Racing Bulls colours. "It's very easy to underestimate how extreme
you need to go with the car, and therefore with a team, with a
company, when you look for ultimate performance. "You find a team
trying to extremise every aspect of the car and the company to get
that last bit of lap time. "Of course, it's not a high return on
investment; it's a lot of effort for that last bit. But that's what
top teams are about. Every race weekend, you have a very simple
answer to your weekend: did you win or not? "We got this P2 in
Zandvoort. We got lucky, or rather, Lando [Norris] got unlucky with
what happened there. But that's the only question you ask yourself
on Monday morning: what were we missing? "I guess in terms of
mindset, that's the biggest difference between the midfield and
what's happening at the front is that you're targeting ultimate
performance. Until you reach it, the answer is that you didn't do
everything you could." Red Bull and Max Verstappen then at least
gave Mekies the answer to his question, regarding doing enough,
with victory recently in the Italian Grand Prix. Can the team now
follow up in this weekend's Azerbaijan GP?
