Laurent Mekies has used his first major podcast appearance as Red Bull Racing team principal to push back hard against the popular paddock narrative that the energy drinks squad has effectively conceded 2026.
The Frenchman, who took over from Christian Horner this season, sat down with F1's Beyond The Grid podcast and was unequivocal that nobody at Milton Keynes is treating the campaign as a holding pattern, even with the team currently fourth in the constructors' championship and Mercedes — led by championship pacesetter Andrea Kimi Antonelli — setting the benchmark.
"We try to do everything we can to make sure this is not a transition year despite the size of the challenge, despite the new power unit challenge, despite the challenges you have mentioned. We want to make sure that we are not in a transition year Tom. We are in full attack mode as we said not happy about the starting point," Mekies said.
Crucially, Mekies refused to single out any one weakness. The team's first in-house power unit, developed with Ford, has come under scrutiny — but the new boss instead described the deficit to Mercedes as a global one that demands improvement everywhere.
"We think it's 360. So we don't think there is one area or another that is to be focused on. The fact that the power unit is not identified as being a specific weakness but more simply an area like every other area to be improved in order to be at the level of the benchmark which is Mercedes today is already as such an incredible achievement," he said.
Mekies also took the opportunity to defend one of Red Bull's most divisive calls of 2025 — the choice to keep pouring resource into a clearly off-the-pace chassis instead of turning fully to the new regulations.
"We thought and we still think it was the right thing to do because we felt that turning the page to 26 would have been a little bit of an easy escape and a wishful thinking that next year will be better even though we didn't fully understand what were the limitation of 25. We didn't think it was the right way," he explained.
According to Mekies, that decision came from the factory floor as much as from senior leadership.
"The truth is Tom nobody wanted to do that in Milton Keynes nobody wanted to turn the page they all wanted to get to the bottom of that 25 car get to the bottom of what didn't work to the level expected and turn things around and yes they knew there would be a price to pay for later. But that's how deep is the fighting spirit in the team," he said.
The 47-year-old Frenchman, an FIA and Ferrari veteran before steering Racing Bulls, was generous in his praise of his predecessor — a notable contrast given the circumstances of Horner's departure.
"At first you need to give a huge credit to Christian. The results speak for themselves. They have been historical and you know Christian was leading that team making it grow and therefore you know hats off to what has been done. I don't think leadership style matters. I think what matters is that as a leader that you take care of your people that you put them in the heart of the project and that you get them the environment for them to express this talent," Mekies said.
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He framed his own job in deliberately humble terms.
"The only thing we do is to make sure our people have what they need to work. That's the only thing we do. It means create the best working environment for your people to express their talents. So yes, it means empowering them as much as you can and it means make sure that you have the right people and you keep the right people," he said.
What had struck him most about Red Bull, he said, was a culture of pure obsession with lap time, untainted by internal politics.
"This team is striking me and I'm sure quite a few others in how close to pure racing it is. You know, every single person on the campus is trying to make the car 1,000 of a second faster and is obsessed about that. And all we try to do as a team principal on top of the people aspect is to make sure that our group is not disturbed or slowed down or distracted by what you call the politics but can actually focus on what they love to do and what they are so good at," he said.
Mekies also pointed to a quiet but significant milestone for the new Ford-powered Red Bull. The car ran 100 laps on the very first day of preseason testing in Barcelona, with no shakedown beforehand — a rare gamble that paid off.
"Seeing the car exiting the garage in Barcelona, first preseason test day without any shakedown. We are one of the few teams if not the only one not to have shakedown before Barcelona. Seeing that car getting out at like 9 in the morning and doing 100 laps on that first day, I think was an incredible reward for the work that everyone has been doing in Milton Keynes days and night, weekends," he said.
For all the talk of full attack mode, Red Bull still has plenty of ground to make up. But Mekies has made it clear that, internally at least, the team is not waiting for 2027 to fight back.
