Backstage at Web Summit, a production crew member—towering over Laurent Mekies—throws a hefty arm around the Oracle Red Bull Racing CEO and guides him to the soundboard to snap a selfie. Many leaders of organizations with 2,000 employees might find this overly casual, even from an enthusiastic fan. Mekies, however, simply grins, unfazed as he obliges the excited crew member.
It’s a brief exchange, but it offers insight into Mekies, who, just four months prior, became only the second person to head Red Bull Racing in its two-decade existence.
“My first reaction is feeling privileged, feeling honored, to suddenly join such an extraordinary team,” Mekies later shares with me on stage, his English tinged with a French accent. “This team has achieved more victories than any other in Formula One over the last twenty years. And now, I’m part of it.”
“Suddenly” is no exaggeration. As widely covered, the completely unexpected call came in July. Christian Horner, the outspoken leader who had been at Red Bull’s helm since 2005, was gone. Mekies, who had led the team’s sister squad, Racing Bulls, for just over a year, was chosen to take the reins.
In some respects, Mekies was an unlikely pick. While Horner thrived in the media glare and the strategic maneuvering that comes with being an F1 team boss, Mekies spent much of his career immersed in engineering. His strategy for success is rooted in that technical foundation; he looks for improvements not only in aerodynamics and tire technology, but also in streamlining workflows and processes.
That mindset shapes the team’s collaborations as well. Consider 1Password, the cybersecurity firm whose CEO, David Faugno, sits beside Mekies and me on stage at Web Summit. Faugno also took charge of his renowned company four months ago—the very same week as Mekies.
At first glance, a partnership between a cybersecurity firm and an F1 team might seem unusual. Security often introduces obstacles: password checks, authentication steps, and procedures that can slow things down. In Formula 1, where milliseconds count, that’s not acceptable.
But that’s precisely why Mekies views 1Password as essential to Red Bull’s performance. “Our staff need to access and switch between complex systems—whether it’s aerodynamics, vehicle dynamics at the track, back at the factory, in the simulator, or in the wind tunnel. Today, our people can move seamlessly from one system to another faster than before, all while maintaining security.”
It may be a minor edge, but in Formula 1, small gains add up. “You’re always seeking out the smallest competitive edge, one after another,” Mekies explains. “Our technical experts, our team—they challenge us daily about the inevitable noise in a large organization. With 1Password, we’ve found a solution to cut down on that noise, freeing up more time for our core work, and that’s where real performance comes from.”
From engineer to CEO
At 48, Mekies has experienced nearly every facet of Formula 1. After studying at ESTACA in Paris and Loughborough University in the UK, he began his motorsport career in Formula 3 in 2000, then moved to F1 with the British team Arrows in 2001. In 2003, he joined the Italian team Minardi as a race engineer. When Red Bull acquired the struggling Minardi team in 2006 and rebranded it as Toro Rosso—intended as a junior squad to nurture young talents like Max Verstappen—Mekies was promoted to chief engineer.
He remained there for eight years before moving on to become safety director at the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA), the global governing body for Formula 1 and other motorsports. There, he is credited with advocating for the titanium “halo” device that sits above F1 cockpits to protect drivers’ heads. Afterward, he joined Ferrari as deputy race director, and five years later, returned to Red Bull’s junior team (renamed Racing Bulls in 2024).
In short, Mekies brings a wealth of experience to his new position. What he doesn’t bring—at least not yet—is a big ego. When Verstappen clinched the 2025 Italian Grand Prix at Monza, setting a new record for the fastest F1 race, reporters asked Mekies about his role in the win. He humbly replied, “I have zero contribution.” When the press laughed, he insisted, “I’m not joking.”
When I bring up that moment on stage at Web Summit, Mekies simply shrugs. “As leaders, our job is to put our people in a position where they can showcase their abilities. So, it’s really their victory.”
Mekies’ perspective on leadership differs from his well-known predecessor’s. He isn’t intentionally trying to “lead from behind.” Instead, he tells me on stage, “I don’t believe the method is what matters. It’s not about leadership style. You’ll see every kind of leadership approach out there. What truly counts is caring for your people and fostering a culture that cares for the company.”
While Mekies could easily focus on his star driver (and he certainly wants to keep him), his attention is on the team as a whole. “My first thoughts are always for the 2,000 people in our factories who never gave up this season,” he says. “It takes immense energy and a strong company culture to maintain that motivation and fighting spirit.”
That humility doesn’t mean avoiding tough calls. The Monza victory also justified a bold decision: to continue developing the 2025 car rather than shifting focus to next year’s model. “We weren’t satisfied with our car’s performance early this year and through the middle of the season,” Mekies explains. “We chose to keep pushing with the 2025 car. We didn’t think we could just move on and hope everything would improve next year.”
It was a gamble. With major regulation changes coming in 2026—including new chassis and power unit rules—most teams had already redirected their efforts to next year’s car. But Mekies believed his team needed to fully understand their issues before moving forward. “We felt we had to get to the root of what wasn’t working,” he says. “Maybe we pushed harder than some of our competitors. Fortunately, it paid off and turned things around for us.”
Now, as the team heads into winter with less development time than some rivals, they do so “with much greater confidence in our tools, our methods, and our processes,” Mekies says.
Driving forward
If the 2025 turnaround was a bold move, 2026 is shaping up to be, in Mekies’ words, a “crazy adventure.” Red Bull is building its own power unit for the first time, in collaboration with Ford. (Since 2019, they’ve used engines based on Honda technology.) “For Oracle Red Bull Racing, there’s no better way to describe next year than as a wild challenge. That’s how significant it is for us.”
To illustrate the scale of the challenge, Mekies describes on stage: “We’re developing our own power unit with Ford’s support, and we’ll be competing against companies that have been making Formula One engines for over 90 years. It’s the kind of ambitious project only Red Bull would attempt. We’ve set up new facilities from scratch in a field in Milton Keynes, UK—built the premises, installed the dynos [large, advanced testing rigs], hired 600 people, and are working to get them collaborating, all to produce an engine and get it ready for the track.”
Can he guarantee Verstappen a championship-caliber car next year? When I ask, Mekies responds without hesitation. “It would be naive to think we’ll immediately be at the top. That’s just not realistic,” he says. “But we approach it the Red Bull way—with a high-risk, high-reward mindset that defines us.”
There’s reason for hope. Currently third in this year’s F1 team standings, just behind Mercedes, Red Bull has a genuine opportunity to overtake them for second place in the season’s final three races. While it’s not the dominance Red Bull has shown in recent years, considering how the season began, it would be a remarkable comeback.
Backstage before our interview, as makeup artists prepare us for the stage, I ask Mekies about the pressure of those last races. His response is characteristically systematic.
“We always say we take it one race at a time. That’s exactly what we’ll do in these next three,” he tells me. “You want to arrive at the circuit, get the car into its optimal performance window, and compete for the win.”
He adds, “It’s incredibly tough to compete at this level, but everyone in Milton Keynes has worked so hard to turn the car around and give us a competitive package for the end of the season.”
Meanwhile, he insists he’s not focused on the points or hypothetical scenarios. “We don’t pay attention to the numbers. We know there’s a lot happening in the [F1 team standings], but we only focus on each race as it comes.”
That’s the “only thing we do,” he says, summing up Red Bull’s mission. “We’re chasing lap times.”
