29/07/2025 20:00
Former F1 driver Jolyon Palmer believes new Red Bull team principal
Laurent Mekies has "underdog mentality", which he expects to help
Yuki Tsunoda. The Belgian Grand Prix marked the Milton
Keynes-based outfit's first under Mekies' leadership, following the
shock departure of long-time boss Christian Horner. Mekies has been
handed a direct promotion from Racing Bulls after 18 months leading
the sister team and worked with Tsunoda throughout the 2024
campaign. The Frenchman managed to get consistent performances out
of the Japanese driver, something he failed to replicate in his
first 10 grands prix for Red Bull. Despite a better showing at
Spa-Francorchamps, particularly in qualifying where he went
seventh-fastest, Tsunoda has scored just seven points since
replacing Liam Lawson, with understanding why he is struggling so
much backed as Mekies' immediate task. "I think that's probably the
best use of him in the immediacy is to work out where [Tsunoda is
struggling]," Palmer said on the F1 Nation podcast. "Because if
you've got two cars that are the same, you have to understand why
one driver is so good and the other one isn't. And even Red Bull as
a team are scratching their heads, thinking, how can no one get
near Max? "So, when you've got now a team principal that you know
hasn't worked with Max in this capacity, as Christian had sort of
developed Max into the champion that he is coming through with Red
Bull, and they won their titles together. "Laurent has actually
come from working with Yuki Tsunoda and with Liam Lawson in the
past, and that was his first foray into being a team principal. So
he's kind of the underdog mentality." 'Arm around Tsunoda'
Continued strong results from Max Verstappen can be expected
despite the leadership change, with it not being something expected
to disrupt the four-time world champion. Given Mekies' past
experience working with Tsunoda, the pressure on the 25-year-old
will likely increase should his results not improve under his
former boss' guidance. Palmer suspects Mekies will immediately
speak to Tsunoda to discover what has been troubling him, in what
has been a "head scratcher" for Red Bull. Palmer continued: "So I
think he's going to be definitely [putting an] arm around Yuki and
thinking, 'Come on, you were great when you drove with me. You were
qualifying up in the front three rows, what is going on here?'
"And trying to understand the second driver role a bit more, which
I think will be helpful, whether or not he'll be able to actually
find the performance there is obviously the bigger head scratcher
for the team."
