Amid the information of Christian Horner’s rapid exit from Crimson Bull, it was confirmed that Laurent Mekies will step up as CEO of the squad, having beforehand acted as Crew Principal of sister outfit Racing Bulls. F1.com appears to be like again on the Frenchman’s journey by means of the game so far…
The highway to F1
Born on April 28, 1977 in Excursions, France, Mekies was a motorsport fan from an early age and shortly turned eager to pursue a profession within the sport. The Frenchman went on to graduate in mechanical engineering from the ESTACA College in Paris, which noticed him spend his remaining 12 months at Loughborough College within the UK.
From there Mekies turned an engine engineer for the Asiatech workforce in System 3, earlier than progressing to F1 with Arrows in 2001.
One 12 months on, he joined Minardi as a race engineer and remained part of the Faenza-based outfit for a number of years.
Mekies was promoted to Chief Engineer when the squad turned Toro Rosso in 2006 and later turned Head of Car Efficiency, a task that noticed him handle six departments all targeted on automotive efficiency.
Shifting on to the FIA and Ferrari
In 2014, Mekies departed Toro Rosso and joined the FIA as Security Director, taking care of security and medical issues throughout the governing physique’s championships. Three years later, he additionally took on the function of F1 Deputy Race Director alongside his different duties.
Mekies went on to change to Ferrari in 2018, having been appointed as Sporting Director. His stint with the Scuderia noticed him moreover tackle the place of Head of Observe and Efficiency Space in 2019, whereas in 2021 he turned Racing Director.
Throughout his time with the workforce, Ferrari scored seven race wins – however a brand new problem was on the horizon for Mekies…
Return to Faenza with Racing Bulls
Halfway by means of the 2023 season, it was confirmed that Mekies had parted methods with Ferrari previous to changing the retiring Franz Tost as Crew Principal on the then-called AlphaTauri workforce for 2024, which means that he would return to the Faenza-based squad that he spent a lot of his early F1 profession with.
Mekies’ appointment got here as a part of a restructure that noticed Peter Bayer arrive as CEO, Tim Goss be a part of as Racing Director and Alan Permane be a part of within the place of Chief Technical Officer. And whereas the workforce confronted a tough begin to 2024 of their new id of RB, indicators of progress began to look because the marketing campaign went on.
There have been some hiccups alongside the best way – together with some regrets over the handling of Daniel Ricciardo’s exit – however Mekies was left feeling “optimistic” about what the squad may go on to attain after making “steps ahead” throughout the season.
Step as much as Crimson Bull
There was loads to maintain Mekies busy initially of 2025 when a driver swap passed off after simply two races, which means that Liam Lawson returned whereas Yuki Tsunoda moved to Red Bull following a troublesome begin to the 12 months for Lawson.
Now it has been confirmed that Mekies will reunite with Tsunoda on the primary outfit, with the Frenchman taking over the place of CEO at Crimson Bull after the exit of Christian Horner was introduced on July 9, whereas Alan Permane turns into Crew Principal at Racing Bulls.
Mekies mentioned of the information: “The final 12 months and a half has been an absolute privilege to steer the workforce with Peter [Bayer].
“It has been a tremendous journey to contribute to the beginning of Racing Bulls along with all our gifted individuals. The spirit of the entire workforce is unimaginable, and I strongly imagine that that is only the start.”
As he makes the following step in his intensive motorsport profession, all eyes will likely be on Mekies as he prepares to get to work at Crimson Bull with rapid impact.
