{"id":262232,"date":"2025-07-13T18:29:10","date_gmt":"2025-07-13T18:29:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/262232\/"},"modified":"2025-07-13T18:29:10","modified_gmt":"2025-07-13T18:29:10","slug":"gerhard-berger-flags-new-red-bull-boss-concerns-after-christian-horner-sacking","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/262232\/","title":{"rendered":"Gerhard Berger flags new Red Bull boss concerns after Christian Horner sacking"},"content":{"rendered":"

Laurent Mekies\u2019 promotion to CEO of Red Bull Racing brings with it one key question, according to ex-F1 racer Gerhard Berger.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Austrian, who was once a 50 per cent owner of Toro Rosso, has questioned whether Mekies has the \u201ckiller instinct\u201d required to thrive at the championship-winning operation.<\/p>\n

Gerhard Berger questions Laurent Mekies \u2018killer instinct\u2019 after Red Bull promotion<\/p>\n

Formerly the team principal at Racing Bulls, Mekies was promoted to CEO of Red Bull Racing following Christian Horner\u2019s sacking last week.<\/p>\n

The Frenchman steps into the job having been with Racing Bulls for just 18 months. Prior to that, he\u2019d worked with Ferrari and the FIA. Early in his career, he worked as an engineer with Toro Rosso alongside the likes of Mark Webber, Justin Wilson, and Christijan Albers.<\/p>\n

It was during that stint that he worked alongside Berger, who was a 50 per cent owner of the Toro Rosso operation with Dietrich Mateschitz from 2006 until early 2009.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have dealt with Laurent before,\u201d Berger told Kronen Zeitung.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was already involved with me at Ferrari, I worked with him at Toro Rosso, and even at the FIA. He is a congenial, nice guy with a lot of quality when it comes to leading people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mekies was appointed CEO and team principal of Red Bull Racing, essentially a direct replacement for Horner, who held both positions.<\/p>\n

The Brit also oversaw the all-new Powertrains division and performed a key marketing role within both Red Bull Racing and Racing Bulls.<\/p>\n

More on Laurent Mekies<\/p>\n

\ud83d\udc49 Horner replacement reignites Red Bull concerns within F1 paddock<\/a><\/p>\n

\ud83d\udc49 Who is Laurent Mekies? Christian Horner\u2019s Red Bull replacement<\/a><\/p>\n

Mekies comes across with no experience in the CEO role, Peter Bayer occupying that position at Racing Bulls.<\/p>\n

He also joins at a crucial time as teams weigh up how they approach the F1 2026 season, which brings with it dramatic new chassis and power unit changes.<\/p>\n

Added to that complication at Red Bull is that the operation will also become a power unit manufacturer, a project started after Honda\u2019s initial decision to withdraw from the sport at the end of 2021.<\/p>\n

On top of that Mekies will be charged with settling the team after a period of turbulence, after on-track results have been harder to find leading to speculation that Max Verstappen could leave the team.<\/p>\n

There is also the matter of getting more from the team\u2019s second driver, Yuki Tsunoda having contributed just seven points in the 10 races he\u2019s been with the team.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe has a good style and knows Formula 1 very well, having been active in various roles,\u201d said Berger.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhether he also has the \u2018killer instinct\u2019 needed at such a big team when you are at the top, that remains to be seen. But I think Mekies is a good choice for Red Bull Racing.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s much more about stabilising the whole team at the moment and getting Max Verstappen back into it properly,\u201d Berger said of the task ahead.<\/p>\n

\u201cRed Bull Racing is currently in a downward spiral. Now the goal should be to rebuild the team properly.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read next: Inside Laurent Mekies\u2019 first day as Red Bull team boss<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Laurent Mekies\u2019 promotion to CEO of Red Bull Racing brings with it one key question, according to ex-F1…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":262233,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4103],"tags":[4199,707,4200,225,100294,12,226,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-262232","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-f1","8":"tag-f1","9":"tag-formula-1","10":"tag-formula1","11":"tag-home-page","12":"tag-laurent-mekies","13":"tag-news","14":"tag-red-bull","15":"tag-sports","16":"tag-uk","17":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/262232","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=262232"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/262232\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/262233"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=262232"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=262232"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=262232"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}