'Incredible' Red Bull mood shift highlighted after team principal change

Red Bull development driver Sebastien Buemi has commended the team atmosphere change following the arrival of Laurent Mekies.

Just a few days following the British Grand Prix earlier this year, Christian Horner was removed from his post as team principal of Red Bull, ending his 20-year stint in charge of the team.

Horner was replaced by Mekies, who stepped up following 18 months in charge of the Red Bull sister squad.

Red Bull has continued to develop the RB21 challenger deep into the season as Max Verstappen seeks to cause a title upset in a battle against the two McLaren drivers.

The development path under Mekies has seen Red Bull return to front-running contention, resulting in a positive atmosphere inside the squad, according to Buemi.

“Laurent is a guy that I’ve known for over 15 years,” Buemi exclusively told RacingNews365. “He’s a great guy, and he's been in F1 for a long time.

“He’s experienced big organisations, including Ferrari.

“It’s obviously difficult for me to clearly say, but I feel like it's a combination of things. Laurent is here, but also the performance is back, so the mood in the team is incredible.

“People are pushing as hard as I've ever seen. So it's very hard to say what he brought.

“But somehow, him and some of the updates and together, it's just made it a great environment.”

A significant Red Bull upgrade was delivered at the Italian Grand Prix, with a change to the floor helping Verstappen win three out of the following five races.

When asked to expand on what made the difference with the upgrade, Buemi replied: “I don’t know if I can say without saying things that I shouldn’t!

“Those small tweaks enabled the team to go more extreme in some of the settings of the car.

“That gave, basically, more grip.”