Steiner Reveals the Secret Behind Mekies’ Success at Red Bull
The former Haas boss praises the Frenchman’s calm leadership for stabilising the team after a string of departures — and for delivering a first win for Red Bull’s new power unit project.
Guenther Steiner isn’t the type to hand out compliments at random — which is exactly why his words about Laurent Mekies carry more weight than the usual paddock praise. Speaking on The Red Flags Podcast after the Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia, the former Haas boss commended Red Bull’s new leader for something that sounds simple until you remember how rarely it actually happens in this environment: he just does the job.
Inherited chaos, not stability
Mekies replaced Horner in the role in July 2025, taking over a team shaken by a string of key departures — Adrian Newey, Helmut Marko, Jonathan Wheatley. On top of that, he had to manage the introduction of the new power unit developed by Red Bull Powertrains in partnership with Ford, alongside the sport’s full regulatory overhaul for 2026.
“He inherited a team a little bit out of control. Good old Laurent just worked it out, always friendly, always with a smile, always polite.”
Steiner doesn’t spare the specifics either: “He never threw the toys out of the pram when Max Verstappen shouted, ‘This is not acceptable.’ He just worked along. Some people left, somebody said, ‘This team is going nowhere.’ Guess what? He brought it back.”
The art of not reacting
According to Steiner, the secret isn’t charisma, it’s the discipline to tune out the noise: “It’s his experience — he worked everywhere — and staying calm. He is never overreacting, always finding a way to address if there is a problem, and just shutting out the noise from outside, which is an art in itself because it gets on your nuts.”
Verstappen’s win in Sepang — the first of the season, and the first for the Red Bull Powertrains project — arrived at exactly the moment critics were ready to write the obituary for the new era at Milton Keynes. Instead, Mekies earned something far more valuable than applause: silence from the people who, not long ago, were calling the team finished.
