From engineer to CEO<\/strong><\/p>\nAt 48, Mekies has seen Formula 1 from nearly every angle. After studying at ESTACA, an engineering school in Paris, and Loughborough University in the U.K., he started in Formula 3 in 2000 before crossing into F1 with a British racing team called Arrows in 2001. He then joined Minardi, an Italian team, in 2003 as a race engineer. When Red Bull bought the struggling outfit and transformed it into Toro Rosso in 2006 \u2014 the idea was to create a junior team to develop young drivers like Max Verstappen for Red Bull Racing \u2014 Mekies was promoted to chief engineer.<\/p>\n
Mekies stayed for eight years before moving on to become safety director at the F\u00e9d\u00e9ration Internationale de l\u2019Automobile (FIA), the rulemaker for Formula 1 and other motorsport series worldwide. There, he reportedly championed the titanium safety device that\u2019s mounted above the cockpit of Formula 1 cars to protect the driver\u2019s head \u2014 the \u201chalo\u201d system. Then it was on to Ferrari as deputy race director, and five years later, back to Red Bull\u2019s junior racing team (renamed Racing Bulls in 2024).<\/p>\n
Mekies brings a breadth of experience to the role, in short. What he doesn\u2019t bring \u2014 not yet, at least \u2014 is a lot of ego. When Verstappen won the 2025 Italian Grand Prix at Monza in September in what became the fastest race in F1 history, reporters asked Mekies about his contribution to the victory. His answer was self-effacing: \u201cI have zero contribution.\u201d When the reporters laughed, he added, \u201cI\u2019m not kidding.\u201d<\/p>\n
When I ask about that moment on stage at Web Summit, Mekies shrugs. \u201cAll we do as leaders is put our people in position to be able to express their talents. So it is very much their win.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mekies sees his role differently than his high-profile predecessor, in fact. He isn\u2019t deliberately trying to \u201clead from behind.\u201d Instead, he tells me onstage that he doesn\u2019t \u201cthink the approach matters. I don\u2019t think it\u2019s leadership style. You will find every possible style in leadership. I think what matters in leadership is care for the people and a care-for-the-company culture.\u201d<\/p>\n
Indeed, while Mekies could certainly shower attention on his star driver (Mekies wants to retain him after all), he\u2019s more focused on the collective. \u201cYour first thoughts are for the 2,000 people back in the factories who have never given up on this season,\u201d he says. \u201cIt takes a tremendous amount of energy, of company culture, to keep that motivation and that fighting spirit.\u201d<\/p>\n
Humility doesn\u2019t mean playing it safe, by the way. The Monza win also validated a somewhat surprising decision: to keep pushing on the 2025 car rather than abandoning it for next year\u2019s development. \u201cWe were not happy about where the car performance had been at the beginning of this year and up until the middle of this year,\u201d Mekies tells me. \u201cWe decided to press on a bit more with 2025. We didn\u2019t feel that we could simply turn the page and have wishful thinking about how everything will be better next year.\u201d<\/p>\n
It was a risky call. With completely new regulations coming in 2026 \u2014 new chassis rules, new power unit regulations \u2014 most teams had already shifted resources to next year\u2019s car. But Mekies felt his team needed to understand what had gone wrong before they could move forward. \u201cWe felt we had to get to the bottom of what had not been working,\u201d he says. \u201cWe perhaps pushed a bit more than some of the competition. And luckily, it gave us this turnaround in form.\u201d<\/p>\n
Now the team heads into winter with less development time than its rivals, \u201cbut with a lot more trust in our tools, in our methodologies, in our process,\u201d Mekies says.<\/p>\n
Driving forward<\/strong><\/p>\nIf Mekies\u2019 2025 turnaround was risky, 2026 represents something else: a \u201ccrazy adventure,\u201d as Mekies describes how Red Bull is building its own power unit for the first time, in partnership with Ford. (It has relied on Honda-based engines since 2019.) \u201cFor Oracle Red Bull Racing, there are no other words to describe next year other than as a crazy challenge. That\u2019s how big it is for us.\u201d<\/p>\n
For a sense of what the team is taking on, here\u2019s how Mekies describes it on stage: \u201cWe are going to do our own power unit with the support from Ford, and we are going to compete against people that have been manufacturing Formula One engines for more than 90 years. It\u2019s the sort of crazy level that only Red Bull can do. We\u2019ve decided to create overnight facilities in the middle of a field in Milton Keynes [a large town about 50 miles northwest of London] in the U.K. from zero \u2014 get the building, get the dynos in [which are massive, sophisticated test rigs], hire 600 people, try to get them to work together, eventually try to get an engine and get it up to speed to reach the track.\u201d<\/p>\n
Can he promise Verstappen a championship-winning car next year? When I ask Mekies, he answers straightaway. \u201cWe would be silly to think that we just go in there and are going to be at the right level straight away. This is not going to happen,\u201d he says. \u201cBut we take it the Red Bull way. We take it with all the high-risk, high-gain approach that we cherish.\u201d<\/p>\n
He has reason for optimism. Sitting third in this year\u2019s F1 team standings, just behind Mercedes, Red Bull has a realistic shot at overtaking them for second place in the final three races of this year\u2019s season. It\u2019s a far cry from the dominance Red Bull enjoyed in recent years, but given how the season started, it would represent a major recovery.<\/p>\n
Backstage before our conversation, as makeup artists powder us for the stage lights, I ask Mekies about the pressure of those final races. His answer is typically methodical.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe always say that we take it race by race. So that\u2019s what we are going to do in the next three races,\u201d he tells me. \u201cYou want to turn up at the racetrack, put the car in the right window,\u201d meaning the narrow range of conditions where a car performs optimally, \u201cand fight for the win.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s \u201cincredibly difficult to fight at that level,\u201d he continues, \u201cbut everyone in Milton Keynes has been doing such a tremendous job to turn the car around and to give us a competitive package for the end of the season.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the meantime, he insists that he\u2019s not looking at the points tables or the what-ifs. \u201cWe don\u2019t look at the numbers. We know there is a lot happening in the [F1 team standings], but we only look at it race by race.\u201d <\/p>\n
That\u2019s the \u201conly thing we do,\u201d he says, describing Red Bull\u2019s mission. \u201cChasing lap times.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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