Christian Horner’s Red Bull ‘mojo’ claim rejected after winning surge

Laurent Mekies has dismissed Christian Horner’s claim that Red Bull has “lost its mojo”.

Red Bull has fought back from its early-season troubles to win three of the last five Grands Prix, with Max Verstappen now second in the drivers’ championship.

Laurent Mekies responds to Christian Horner’s Red Bull criticism

Horner was sacked from the team principal role in July 2025 and was immediately replaced by Mekies.

Under Mekies’ leadership, Red Bull produced a late-season surge that lifted Verstappen into second place in the Drivers’ Championship, where he missed out on the title to Lando Norris by two points.

This season, Red Bull not only faced a performance deficit to the Mercedes W17 but also reliability issues with the RB22, and its new in-house power unit.

Although one of the first to congratulate Red Bull when it won its first race with its own power unit at the Bahrain Grand Prix, Horner believes Red Bull has lost its team spirit since his departure.

The Briton said of today’s Red Bull to the Times: “I think if you look at that team 12 months down the line, it’s lost its mojo, its presence, its vibe.”

His replacement as team boss, Laurent Mekies, shares a different perspective.

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Asked about Horner’s comment during the Mexican GP weekend, the Frenchman said: “Look, first, Christian is entitled to his opinion.

“He obviously spent a lot of time in this team. I respect his point of view.

“We certainly feel extremely differently about the vibe in the team.

“I think one of the strong points we’ve been drawing on, certainly in the last few months, is the incredible team spirit that has allowed us to come back from an objectively very difficult moment.

“It’s always one thing to have a positive spirit when you are winning races. It’s something else to have that same fighting spirit and unity between the team members when you are put under pressure.

“We certainly had a challenging first part of the year, chassis side and PU side, and the way the team stuck together, the way the team set the Milton Keynes department on fire to try to come back, and the way they have done that, it’s such a constructively challenging matter from any of our team members to the brutally honest comments of our drivers.

“I think that’s the Red Bull spirit. That’s certainly how we feel we need to go racing. The guys got the rewards they deserved with the turnaround that they have produced, which is, I think, very remarkable.

“But, ultimately, we are well aware that we live and die with our results. The target is not to win one race or two races. The target is to be back to world titles, and until we are there, nobody will feel we have achieved anything.”

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