Kingmakers all turn out to offer support for team principal’s first racing weekend that hopes to feature Max Verstappen roaring back into form
Amid a turbulent period for Red Bull, their new team principal, Laurent Mekies, is bearing the responsibility and the scrutiny, for the moment at least, with a smile.
After not quite two weeks in charge since the dismissal of Christian Horner, Mekies and Red Bull are adjusting to a new era with a business as usual attitude even as the circumstances suggest it can be anything but, before this weekend’s Belgian Grand Prix.
At Spa, Mekies faced the press for the first time in his new role and was presented with a barrage of questions, which he fielded with the light touch and good humour of a man enjoying his position in what might be considered its honeymoon period at the Red Bull helm.
The weather in the Ardennes forests demonstrated its usual capricious sweep from mist and rain to hazy sunshine, playing as the backdrop to the attention in the paddock centred on the Red Bull motorhome, where the atmosphere around the team has been febrile. Oliver Mintzlaff, the managing director of Red Bull’s parent company, Red Bull GmbH, was in attendance, a relatively rare occurrence and indicative of the sea change that has taken place, with Mintzlaff the ultimate victor in his power struggle with Horner.
