Mekies Under Fire at Red Bull After ‘That’s Not His Role’ Comment

Laurent Mekies’s first year as Red Bull Racing team principal has hit a rough patch. After a disastrous start to the 2026 season, former driver Ralf Schumacher and long‑time team insider Christian Steiner publicly questioned whether the Frenchman’s skill set matches the role.

Why it matters:

• Red Bull’s decade‑long dominance has set the benchmark for the sport; any leadership slip could reshuffle the championship hierarchy.
• Mekies’s talent‑scouting ability is crucial as the team copes with the exits of key figures (Lambiase, Newey, Wheatley) and a car that is struggling on‑track.
• A prolonged slump would hand the lead to rivals Mercedes, Ferrari and the emergent McLaren‑Oscar Piastri package.

The details:

• Schumacher’s take – On the Backstage Boxengasse podcast he said, “I like Laurent, but that’s not really his role. He knows how to recruit the best people. The car is a disaster – heavy, nervous, even Max can’t handle it. It probably needs a complete redesign.”
• Steiner’s warning – On the Drive to Wynn podcast he linked the early‑season woes to a cascade of departures and a loss of focus from senior engineers. He believes Mekies will need “years” to stabilise the operation.
• Current performance – Red Bull sits well down the grid, trailing early‑season leader Oscar Piastri by over 100 points. Verstappen has struggled to extract pace from a chassis described as “heavy and nervous.”
• Organisational churn – 2025 saw the exit of senior aerodynamics chief Lambiase to McLaren for 2027 and hints that Adrian Newey’s commitment is waning, further destabilising the technical department.
• Mekies’s background – Former Ferrari sporting director and FIA sporting chief, praised for assembling elite engineering groups, but with limited experience running a full‑scale F1 operation.
• Car issues – Preliminary data points to excess weight, sub‑optimal aerodynamic flow and a power‑unit integration problem that even Max’s feedback loops can’t fully compensate for.

What's next:

• Restructuring – Mekies is expected to reshuffle the leadership team, bring in trusted allies and promote younger engineers to rebuild the chassis and aero philosophy.
• Mid‑season test – Red Bull plans a B‑spec test at the Spanish GP to evaluate a lighter, more balanced package, a step that could set the tone for 2027 development.
• Timeline – Steiner suggests a realistic turnaround will span the 2026 and 2027 seasons, with incremental gains rather than an immediate return to pole dominance.
• Championship outlook – Even if Red Bull recovers, they will likely cede the top spot this year, turning the 2026 campaign into a rebuilding phase rather than a title defence.