Red Bull confirms technical reshuffle as Laurent Mekies lands key new signing

Red Bull has announced some changes in its technical organisational structure, with a new signing arriving in a team move.

Laurent Mekies’ squad has confirmed two changes in its technical organisation, reporting to technical director Pierre Waché.

Red Bull confirms technical reshuffle and new arrival

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With the core of Red Bull’s technical team under long-term contracts up until F1 2028, the primary change the Milton Keynes-based squad has made is with an eye to “reinforcing its focus on performance and innovation”.

Effective immediately, Ben Waterhouse will take on an expanded role to become the team’s chief performance and design engineer.

His remit sees him take on responsibility for design and vehicle performance, reporting directly to Waché. His previous job title had been as head of performance engineering.

He has been with Red Bull for over a decade, initially arriving from Toro Rosso in 2014, where he served as technical director, before assuming his current role at Red Bull Racing in 2017.

Mekies has also turned to a signing from the Faenza-based squad for a new member of staff, with Andrea Landi arriving from Racing Bulls (formerly Toro Rosso).

The Italian is currently the deputy technical director at Racing Bulls, serving under Guillaume Cattelani, but will arrive to start work at Red Bull from July 1 as head of performance.

He has previously been Jaime Alguersuari’s race engineer in 2010 and ’11, staying on with Jean-Eric Vergne in 2012.

After a spell in DTM, Landi became Ferrari’s head of vehicle dynamics before taking on his current role with Racing Bulls.

According to Red Bull, this evolution in the team’s technical hierarchy will “strengthen integration between these areas and will accelerate the development of competitive, high-performing solutions.

“These changes support the team’s long -term technical ambitions and reflect its continued focus on developing internal talent while attracting leading expertise from across the sport.”

Mekies’ tweaks to the technical department come off the back of a tricky start to the new regulation cycle, with Red Bull having clearly slipped backward relative to its usual competitors at the front of the grid.

Four-time F1 World Champion Max Verstappen is yet to finish on the podium after the first three Grands Prix, while he and Isack Hadjar have been battling with a car that has struggled to match the leading trio of teams in Mercedes, Ferrari, and McLaren.

Indeed, with Hadjar going so far as to label the RB22 as “terrible” following the Japanese Grand Prix, Mekies explained that the task of trying to solve the complex issues and limitations of the car is something he’s confident Red Bull can get on top of.

“So at first we left Melbourne thinking that we were one second off Mercedes and half a second off Ferrari,” he said. “The biggest difference in Melbourne was that McLaren looked in reach there, and actually, Max came back from P20 to bump into Norris.

“Then we see that gap largely increasing in China, and you have seen us starting to scratch our heads there about car balance and car characteristics.

“And then [in Japan], also, it didn’t look good at all on Friday, Saturday, and certainly, there is nothing to be happy about [in the race].

“That’s the reality, and I think it’s a combination of underlying performance and a layer of us not being able to extract enough from the package and to give something Max and Isack can push with.

“I’m not suggesting that it’s set up tuning, I’m just saying there is something we are wrestling with that car that adds to our underlying lack of performance.

“Now, trying to solve this sort of complex issues and trying to understand complex limitations is our core business. So as much as it feels bad when you are at the back of the top teams right now, that’s precisely what the whole company is set up to do, to get to the bottom of complex limitations like that, and bring development that can mitigate them and improve.

“It feels bad now, but I have full confidence that that’s exactly what our team is very good at.”

With Mekies facing a rebuild of the team after this slip, which has coincided with the departures of several prominent names from the trackside personnel, Waterhouse’s promotion and the arrival of one of Mekies’ former Faenza colleagues will be a welcome shot in the arm.

Another welcome factor is that Landi will not have to serve a lengthy period of gardening leave, as would usually be the norm for technical personnel switching team; with Red Bull and Racing Bulls enjoying common ownership, negotiations to switch become much more easy to thrash out.

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