Laurent Mekies reveals 'conscious effort' against Red Bull pitfall

Laurent Mekies has revealed to making "a conscious effort" not to refer back to his time at Racing Bulls after taking up the team principal role at Red Bull.

Mekies was midway through his second season with Racing Bulls when he was appointed as Christian Horner's successor after the Briton's shock sacking following the British Grand Prix in July.

Horner had been at the helm for 20 years but paid the price for Red Bull's poor performance over the first half of the season. After the race at Silverstone, Red Bull was fourth in the constructors' championship, 288 points adrift of leaders McLaren.

The Red Bull hierarchy immediately turned to Frenchman Mekies following his sterling job in guiding Racing Bulls throughout his 18 months at the helm, allied to which was his experience with the FIA and Ferrari.

Mekies served as deputy Formula 1 race director with motorsport's governing body, before joining the Scuderia, initially taking on the role of sporting director before stepping up to become racing director.

The 48-year-old concedes that, given the speed of his appointment in switching from Racing Bulls to Red Bull, it was not easy to reset his expectations and put himself in a completely different mindframe  

"I really had to make a conscious effort not to refer back to Racing Bulls because of how different the projects were," said Mekies, speaking to a select group of media, including RacingNews365, at the end of last season.

"Then, after that, there was a huge amount of support from the team [Red Bull] to help me get into it. They've been extremely welcoming, extremely open-minded, extremely willing to share their approaches - what was working, what was not working.

"But in terms of jumping in, yes, from Racing Bulls, there needed to be a complete reset.

"Perhaps, in some respects, there are more similarities with the Ferrari era, in terms of the size of the team, the pressure of fighting at the front, chassis, plus engine.

"But there again, the approach has not been trying to get reference points from the past.

"Let's try to get to know as many people as possible, as fast as we can, and then have a grasp of the dynamics and where we can support."

Although Mekies insisted on taking little credit, what followed from his third race onwards after the summer break was a dramatic upturn in form as Red Bull fell 18 points shy of finishing second in the constructors' standings.

With star driver Max Verstappen scoring a podium in all 10 races post-summer break, including six victories, the Dutchman fell just two points shy of securing a fifth consecutive drivers' title.