Laurent Mekies faces Red Bull brain drain warning as key exits mount
GP Lambiase was the talk of the Formula 1 world on Thursday, with a big announcement over his future.
Red Bull are battling a growing “brain drain”, with Laurent Mekies under pressure to stem the loss of key personnel before rivals strip the team further.
And Karun Chandhok says specifically raiding the Mercedes team to bolster its workforce should be the target.
Laurent Mekies warned amid Red Bull staff exits
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Red Bull has seen several big names leave in recent years with teams poaching staff from the more successful teams.
From Rob Marshall to Will Courtenay, Adrian Newey and Jonathan Wheatley, the team also bid farewell to long-serving team principal Christian Horner last year before advisor Helmut Marko left in the off season.
Now, it’s GianPiero Lambiase who is set to move on.
Max Verstappen’s trusted race engineer is off to McLaren no later than 2028, taking up the role of Chief Racing Officer, reporting to team boss Andrea Stella.
It is potentially a huge blow for Red Bull, not only because of his knowledge and success with the team but also his very close relationship with Verstappen.
Former F1 driver Chandhok believes Red Bull and Mekies need to do something to stop, what he called, the “brain drain” from the championship winners.
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“At the end of the day, you look at Red Bull last year, they won six out of the last nine Grands Prix,” Chandhok told Sky’s The F1 Show podcast.
“The car improved a hell of a lot. They arguably had the fastest car at a lot of that back end of the season last year, or at least equal fastest. Clearly, people need more than just success on track.
“And I think for whatever reason, this brain drain has gone on and there’s a cultural shift that has happened throughout the organisation.
“There’s a big job there for Laurent Mekies and the ownership from Red Bull in Austria to figure out ‘how are we going to stop this? How are we going to stop the brain drain? How do we make ourselves attractive?’
“Right now, you want to attract people from Mercedes. They’re the ones winning. You have to try and rebuild.
“And I think one of the things that they’ve got to be worried about is good people attract other good people.
“How long before ‘GP’ starts calling the other 20 people who are sitting in their engineering office and saying, ‘hey, you know what, guys? This place down at Woking, this is a really nice place to work. How do you fancy coming down here?’
“And all of a sudden, how long before that core group starts to break up?
“We’ve seen it so many times.
“Adrian Newey went from team to team to team and dragged good people. Ross Brawn did the same. I think that’s something Red Bull really needs to be worried about.
“They need a big-name signing, not just for the skill set that person can bring, but the people that they will attract.”
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