According to former F1 team boss Günther Steiner, miracles should not be expected immediately from Laurent Mekies, the new team boss of Red Bull. “Mekies is not a magician,” he states.
Steiner believes that Mekies faces a monumental task at Max Verstappen‘s racing stable and that not too much should be expected in the short term from the successor of the dismissed Christian Horner.
“Good people have left and spread to other teams. Now he has to try to attract new top talent, and that is difficult,” Steiner tells the German web.de.
A Massive Project
Red Bull has recently seen key figures such as Jonathan Wheatley, Rob Marshall, and Adrian Newey leave. Also, engine supplier Honda will end the collaboration after this season, meaning Red Bull Powertrains will have to develop its own power source, supported in the background by Ford. “That’s a massive project. It certainly won’t go smoothly in the first year,” Steiner believes. He expects Red Bull to be competitive by 2026. “But not at the top.”
Finally, Steiner is not surprised by Max Verstappen’s decision to race for Red Bull also in 2026. The four-time world champion has a contract running until 2028, but was particularly in the interest of Mercedes and Aston Martin.
Steiner on this: “Max knows: at Red Bull, I have the option to leave at the end of 2026. If Red Bull remains strong, he is in the right place. If Mercedes is strong from 2026, he will get a multi-year contract there. A switch now with a long-term contract would be riskier.”
