Mekies reveals the truth about the Reverse Red Bull wing and there is an Hadjar ‘mystery’ in Miami
“We have lost several key people in the last 4–5 years, that is true.” Laurent Mekies began his comments with this statement after FP1 in an interview with Sky Sports F1, addressing the ongoing internal changes within Red Bull.
Regarding the possibility of Gianpiero Lambiase leaving Red Bull to join McLaren before 2028, the French team principal responded:
“He has two long years with us and we all say that we want these two years to be full of success, and that is what we are focused on. You know, we do not want to get defensive. We take this very seriously and everything we do is aimed at ensuring the best possible environment to attract, develop and retain our talent. I am confident we will succeed in this area.”
Mekies then added that Lambiase would take on the role of team principal at McLaren, a claim that was denied not long ago by the Woking-based team.
“Gianpiero has had an extraordinary opportunity. He will become team principal. I can only wish him the best. This team is creating talent. We are very proud to rely, as much as possible, on internal promotions. And if we need to look for specific expertise or experience in the pit lane, we do it and we are happy to do so.”
In this case, there are two possible explanations: either McLaren is trying to hide Lambiase’s future role and a potential departure of Andrea Stella, or Mekies simply made a mistake in his comments. Further statements on this topic are expected, as the situation remains unclear and open to interpretation.
On Red Bull FP1 with new upgrades
Mekies first highlighted the issues experienced by Isack Hadjar during the opening and only practice session:
“There are some things that are not really working on his car. We are trying to understand why we cannot make the car work in the same way as Verstappen’s, so that will be the job for the next two hours.”
One of the surprises of the only practice session was Mercedes, which was not yet at its best and also experienced issues with Kimi Antonelli’s car. However, according to the Red Bull team principal, it is still too early to draw conclusions.
“FP1 and then the Sprint sessions are those sessions where everyone runs different fuel loads and different approaches, so it is really about us against ourselves, finding a car with which Max and Isack can push, and then once that is done we can estimate the gap to the competition.”
One of the most important innovations introduced with the new upgrade package is the rear wing mechanism, which replicates in a similar way the effect seen on Ferrari’s design.
When asked about the name of this wing, Mekies replied with irony:
“Ask Fred. He will probably claim intellectual property rights, right?”
This refers to the beginning of the season when Fred Vasseur nicknamed Ferrari’s rear wing the “Macarena” due to its movement. Regarding the development work behind the upgrade, Mekies added:
“The idea came from the guys long, long before we hit the track. We saw what everyone else was doing, but as we said, we had a bigger problem to solve before we could bring that rear wing to the track. So yes, it is a good indicator of how hard everyone is working.”
Overall, speaking about the new upgrade package that debuted in Miami, Mekies said:
“It is a bit early to fully analyse the data, but yes, we definitely learned a lot. A huge amount of work was done in Milton Keynes to analyse our limitations and bring updates. Essentially, it is two parallel paths. We had already planned upgrades like everyone else, but in addition, everyone in Milton Keynes had to understand what was limiting us, so it is an encouraging sign. Again, it is only FP1. We have all the data to analyse, but for now it looks like a step in the right direction. We focused only on ourselves.”
According to Mekies, this was exactly the goal after the difficulties seen in the first four races:
“In China, in Japan, there were many things, regardless of where the competition took place, there were many things preventing Max and Isack from pushing, and that is what we tried to fix, so we are focusing heavily on ourselves. The gap to others will be assessed a bit later, but certainly from Max’s side, there is a signal that we have something we can work with.”
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