End of Red Bull’s ‘guns blazing’ and printed evidence defence of Verstappen?

The days of the Red Bull team principal arriving at a press conference with printed evidence to argue Max Verstappen’s case are over, according to Jolyon Palmer.

That’s because new team boss Laurent Mekies is likely to bring a more “pragmatic” approach than the “all guns blazing attack” that his predecessor Christian Horner would launch.

Red Bull: Out with the print evidence, in with the pragmatic?

Last season as Verstappen held off Lando Norris to win a fourth successive Drivers’ Championship title, the protagonists were involved in back-to-back clashes at the United States and Mexican races.

Norris was penalised in Austria before Verstappen had the book thrown at him in Mexico over two separate incidents on the same lap against Norris, both earning the driver 10-second penalties.

Horner arrived at his post-race press conference with printed sheets of telemetry that he used to argue against Verstappen’s penalties.

The printer was hard at work again this year in Saudi Arabia when Horner presented photographic evidence from Verstappen’s onboard to dispute the World Champion’s penalty for passing Oscar Piastri off the track on the opening lap at Jeddah.

But the days of evidence being shown at press conferences and the “all guns blazing attack” to defend Verstappen are over after Red Bull sacked Horner in the wake of the British Grand Prix and promoted Mekies in his stead.

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The two are notably different in their leadership styles. Whereas Horner was a charismatic personality who was at times criticised for his robust defence of Verstappen even when the driver had crossed the line, Mekies is known for his calm leadership.

Palmer predicts it could mean the end of the no-holds-barred defence of the Red Bull drivers.

Discussing the change in leadership, F1 Nation podcast host Tom Clarkson said: “He [Mekies] is a very different personality to Christian Horner, so I’m going to be fascinated to see how the team reacts to him.

“I think he’s more gentle than Christian Horner.

“You know, Horner’s only line of defence was always attack, wasn’t it? Whereas I think Laurent’s a little bit more guarded.”

Going on to ask Palmer how the team and Verstappen could react to the change of leadership, the former F1 driver replied: “I think they will all be gearing up behind him because this is after the fall-out of everything in last year and a half and the key personnel that have left Red Bull.

“There’s a lot of people within the team that are looking around and thinking, ‘Who’s going to go next?’ The whole team was very unsettled and this is the chance now for the rest of the team are still very good at what they do to regalvanise and put their support behind Laurent.

“I don’t think one week to the next week the team principal role will change a lot. They are not hands-on the pit wall, they are not driving the car, they are not implementing strategies. It’s all about the communication channels with Laurent, keeping him in the loop.

“I wonder, with the different personalities between Christian and Laurent, if there’s going to be a bit of a culture change at Red Bull.

“Because of exactly what you said, actually, the attacking nature of Christian Horner. He was always bullish, always wanting to hit back if he was ever on the back foot.

“Remember all those bits of paper that we saw whenever there was a stewards’ decision that went against him or Verstappen?

“So I wonder if that will change, and it will be a bit more of a pragmatic race team, maybe, and not necessarily all guns blazing attack in favour of Max.

“But we will see, because we really don’t know what Laurent Mekies is going to be like in this situation.”

Taking up the role of Red Bull team principal two weeks ago, Mekies laid out his top priority in his first address.

“I just can’t wait to meet as many people as possible from this incredible team,” said the Frenchman.

“You want to discover the magic, you want to meet the guys and girls that are doing the magic behind the scenes.

“That’s what the next few weeks will be dedicated to: To try to meet as many of our people as possible, to listen to them, to try to understand this beautiful, magic machine that is Red Bull Formula 1 and, eventually, find ways to contribute and to support.”

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