Mekies tells ‘the truth’ as Zak Brown hails ‘healthier’ F1 without Christian Horner

“The truth is” that Red Bull has a “very good relationship” with McLaren’s leadership duo Zak Brown and Andrea Stella.

That is the claim made by Red Bull Racing boss Laurent Mekies, after McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown bluntly stated that Formula 1 will be in a “healthier” state with Mekies at the helm rather than Christian Horner. Brown and Mekies held a private meeting ahead of Hungarian Grand Prix race day.

Red Bull boss praises ‘very good group’ of Formula 1 teams

Additional reporting by Thomas Maher

After the sudden axing of Christian Horner – the Red Bull Racing boss of 20-plus years – following the British Grand Prix, Mekies was named as his replacement.

It had been a challenging 18 months for Horner, who was twice cleared by Red Bull following allegations of inappropriate behaviour from a fellow employee. He also oversaw the waning of Red Bull’s performances, and key figures such as Adrian Newey, Jonathan Wheatley and Rob Marshall depart the team.

One of Horner’s harshest critics was Zak Brown, who told the Telegraph he believes Formula 1 will be “healthier” without Horner, while suggesting that lines were crossed politically by the former Red Bull Racing chief.

Red Bull’s minor breach of the 2021 cost cap attracted plenty of attention from Brown. Meanwhile, as McLaren usurped Red Bull as the leading F1 force, allegations of flexi-wings and tyre water came McLaren’s way.

“There’s always going to be some political aspects to the sport, but I think it is going to be healthier with Laurent,” said Brown. “I’m a fan of Laurent. I have known him for a long time, and it’ll be good to go racing against him.

“There’s always going to be politicking in F1 – let’s try and shut down their flexi-wings and that stuff, but when you start getting into frivolous allegations, that’s just going too far.

“If I look up and down the pit lane now, I see us fighting each other hard politically, but the line is not being crossed, and that line got crossed before.

“I think that we’ll see a little bit of a change for the better. There’s a higher level of trust that now, if we sit down and have a conversation on a topic where we think there could be some confidentiality, and it’s just not an automatic ‘I’m going to use that as a political weapon’.

“We’re going to be in a better place, a little bit more unified, and a little bit more trusting that while we’re fighting on track, we can have a conversation about what’s good for the sport off it. And that won’t get manipulated for political reasons and taken out of context.”

Mekies echoes Brown’s thoughts on a “unified” Formula 1, and said “the truth is” that Red Bull and McLaren relations are in a good place.

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Speaking to the media, including PlanetF1.com, Mekies said: “You know, competition on track is one thing. Having discussions together to define the positions on the future of the sport, on key strategic decisions that we need to make as a sport for the future, is something that is normal to do between competitors.

“And as much as we will disagree there and there, or we will simply defend our short-term or mid-term interest, the truth is, we have a very good relationship with Zak, with Andrea.

“But also with Toto [Wolff], and also with Fred [Vasseur] and Mattia [Binotto] and all the other guys.

“So, you know, it’s a very good group. And I think we have done enough, F1 Commission all together, to be conscious that if we want to truly contribute to the sport – and I think the sport at the level where it is right now – deserves that a group tries to tune down their short-term and mid-term interest to discuss with the FIA and with F1 on how to drive it forward.

“And that’s what we try to do. We don’t hide our bias, but we try to be constructive about how to go about it.”

McLaren has built a seemingly unassailable lead at the top of the F1 standings. Oscar Piastri leads the Drivers’ Championship by nine points from McLaren team-mate Lando Norris, with the highest non-McLaren driver – Red Bull’s Max Verstappen – 97 points off top spot.

In the Constructors’ Championship, McLaren are 299 points ahead of nearest challenger Ferrari.

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