Why Red Bull’s current position does not tell the full story of Mekies’ first year in charge

Exactly one year on from appointing Laurent Mekies as only the second Team Principal in their history, Red Bull find themselves in exactly the same place in the Teams' Championship – P4. But have the six-time World Champions plateaued or are there signs of rejuvenation behind the scenes?

When Mekies took over from Christian Horner last summer – who had led the team since its creation in 2005 – having spent one-and-a-half years leading their sister team Racing Bulls, he found a team at a low ebb who had endured a difficult start to the season.

They had scored 172 points, at an average of 14.3 points per race as there had been 12 Grands Prix, and were 288 behind leaders McLaren.

This year, they have 128 from nine Grands Prix, which is an average of 14.2 – but they are closer to championship leaders Mercedes, albeit still adrift by 205 points.

You could argue then, that Red Bull are pretty much where they were 12 months ago based on those numbers, but that is not the case at all.

Yes, Red Bull have yet to win a Grand Prix so far in 2026. And yes, they are still P4 behind Mercedes, Ferrari and McLaren, but everyone in Formula 1 knows that change is not the work of a moment, as it takes time to rebuild an operation.

Mekies is a people person. He believes they are the key to the success of a project, so he spent much of the second-half of last year (his first six months in the job) getting to know his team and understanding where the strengths and weaknesses lie.

To help him to do so, he opted to push on with development of the 2025 car until the end of the season, despite their rivals diverting all their resources to the following season when a new chassis and power unit regulation set was being introduced.

The 49-year-old knew that this would hurt the team at the start of 2026 and possibly for the following season or two as well, because it would mean starting the new era with an underdeveloped car, but he felt it was the right thing to do when considering the long-term plan.

The results on paper were as you'd expect. Red Bull obliterated the gap between them and McLaren in the closing stages, with Max Verstappen winning six of the last nine races to cut a 104-point deficit down to just two by the end of the season. Had Verstappen managed to snatch the title at the death, it would have publicly looked like an inspired decision.

Behind the scenes though, it still was – even if, as they expected, the team started on the backfoot and look the least likely to mount a title challenge of the top four.

By pushing development until the end of last year, Mekies was able to see what was working and what wasn't. He could see which departments needed strengthening, both in terms of infrastructure and people, and he could see which people might need to change.

That's allowed the team to evolve this season, with sources saying around 130 people joined Red Bull in the first four months of the year. Mekies has bolstered several departments and tweaked others.

On the technical side of things, Chief Designer Craig Skinner departed after 20 years at the team, with Ben Waterhouse stepping over from Racing Bulls as Chief Performance and Design Engineer, reporting to Technical Director Pierre Wache. Andrea Landi joined as Head of Performance, having gained significant experience at Ferrari and Racing Bulls.

Naturally, it will take time to see the fruits of those changes – not least because their new wind tunnel doesn't come online until next year, which means the first car to benefit from that (as it will also need to be calibrated) will be the 2028 machine.

Time stops for no one of course, so they will need to find a way to make the best of what they have now with a car that has suffered rear wing issues for two Grands Prix in succession. But the mood inside the team is believed to be good as there is a belief they know what they have to do to get back to the front and fighting for race wins.

There's also plenty to be positive about when it comes to the second seat at Red Bull, as Isack Hadjar has settled in very nicely in his sophomore campaign.

The Frenchman has finished inside the top six in each of the last five Grands Prix to sit eighth in the Drivers' Championship, just 24 points behind his more decorated team mate Verstappen.

For the most part, he's around a quarter of second adrift of the four-time World Champion, which is significantly better than most of his predecessors have managed.

You could even argue that, so far, he's among the toughest if not the toughest team mate Verstappen has faced since Daniel Ricciardo back in 2018.

Considering there's been some strong drivers in that period, including race winners Sergio Perez and Pierre Gasly, that's impressive – even if it's a reasonably small sample of nine races.

"Certainly big picture for us is that it is a step forward every time he goes out with the car," said Mekies of Hadjar. "That is positive for the rest of the season."

It's less rosy on the other side of the garage, with Verstappen's future at the team up in the air – as it was last year when Mekies joined. The Dutchman wants to win, and he's not been able to do that this year because he hasn't had the machinery with which to do so.

Given his limited options to move elsewhere – McLaren, Ferrari and Mercedes have got their driver line-ups sorted for next year – his best option looks to be to stay at Red Bull as they attempt to fight back to the front.

Ensuring he does so will be one of Mekies’ biggest tasks in the next few months – and the best way to do that is to give Verstappen a car with which he can fight.