Red Bull arrived at pre-season testing with modest expectations. The team had lost several key figures over the past months and embarked on the challenge of designing its own engine. Transitioning from a customer to a constructor is never simple, especially when it involves a fundamental component like the power unit. Yet, the team impressed during the on-track sessions in Barcelona and Bahrain, showing no reliability issues, so much so that Toto Wolff called them a favorite.
The transition was far from easy. It began under Christian Horner and concluded with Laurent Mekies, who skillfully guided the team through various challenges. In fact, he managed to revive a group that had been losing efficiency and credibility. “The team has been fantastic. They had just gone through a seismic change, but they welcomed me in the best possible way. After a few months, I realized that my role was not to change the foundations, but to protect the competitive DNA. We needed to focus on making the car faster, everything else was just background noise. It would have been easier to dedicate ourselves immediately to 2026, starting fresh from scratch. But no one wanted to give up, and from Monza onward, a new championship began for us. I tried to provide the team’s talents with the best environment to grow,” Laurent Mekies explained to Autosport.
Laurent Mekies also took responsibility for the powertrain project started by his predecessor from a blank slate. Over the past three years, Red Bull has hired nearly 700 people and tackled this enormous undertaking, which, for now, appears to be working. “Our start has been promising, but we know we are competing against giants of motorsport, and at the moment we are at the back of the top teams. We’ve climbed one mountain, but there’s already another waiting for us. We are ready to close the gap, and we are entering one of the most important development periods Formula 1 has ever seen,” the Frenchman added. Indeed, while the early tests have provided valuable information and data, Albert Park will be the ultimate benchmark, with most teams ready to introduce a significant wave of upgrades that could overturn expectations.
The success of the new power unit project represents a defining moment for the team’s future independence on the grid. While the early reliability is a testament to the hard work of the 700-strong crew, the upcoming season will reveal if they can truly sustain this momentum against established manufacturers in the long run.
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