Racing Bulls team boss reveals remarkable strategy for 2025

The 2024 F1 campaign marked Laurent Mekies' first season as a team principal as he moved to the forefront of the Racing Bulls team following a five-year stint in a senior role at Ferrari.

It was not Mekies' first experience at the Red Bull sister squad. From 2005 to 2012, he held the role of chief engineer when it ran under the Toro Rosso moniker before spending two years as the head of vehicle performance.

However, his latest role within the outfit was the most demanding yet as he took over the position previously held by long-time team boss Franz Tost.

Working with team CEO Peter Bayer, Mekies guided Racing Bulls to eighth place in the constructors' championship.

Speaking exclusively to RacingNews365, Mekies reflected on his first season in the leading role at the Faenza-based squad.

“The only dominating sentiment is the fact that you have a fantastic task in front of you and that you have to ramp up as quickly as possible to be up to the role,” he said. “You can never feel, ‘Oh great, I got it right today’.

“If you ask me the biggest satisfaction so far, it’s probably the reaction of the people.

“It was, for me, a comeback [to Faenza] after 10 years - regardless of the role, forget the role. Overall, the warmth of the people and the way they engaged with this new project. It's not the first new project in Faenza, but I really felt that we had our people with us.

“Certainly, as a manager, it’s the best thing you can hope for, to feel that people are following you.”

Mekies hails crucial Racing Bulls hires

Mekies was not the only new arrival within the team at the start of 2024.

The squad signed long-time Alpine senior team member Alan Permane to the sporting director role and former Ferrari man Tim Goss as its new chief technical officer.

Mekies was left content that the Racing Bulls project is being viewed favourably after convincing some major names to join.

“Another great one has been the way we managed to convince quite a good number of senior people from many different top teams to join the boat, to join the adventure,” he said. 

“It was not an easy one, but in the end, it was a great feeling to see that people wanted to jump into the challenge with us.

“We didn't promise anyone that it would be easy, but in the end, I am convinced we got extraordinary people to join the talented base.

“I really feel that these groups will get together, settle together and we'll produce something great, regardless of what Peter and I will do in the future.

“So the team is in good hands regardless of us and I’m enjoying it, of course, because we are doing the most beautiful job in the world.”

Mekies outlines approach for Racing Bulls excellence

However, Mekies has not necessarily been left satisfied by his overall impact on the team as he acknowledged he will strive to improve procedures in his second year.

“You can never make enough effort to communicate and to engage with your people,” he stated. “If you feel you have done a good job in that, if you reflect on it, you could have done even more.

“There is no limit to how much time, energy and effort you can give to your people.

“If you ask me to reflect on it, in year two, you want to do more. Whatever the 24 hours in the day is, you want to be able to do more to have more time and energy to communicate at all levels, for them to carry on without you.

“The other thing for year two, you want to keep implementing the changes you're making faster. It looks like a stupid thing to say, but if I look back at pretty much any time or any job, you say, ‘Okay, what would you do differently?’ The conclusion, at least for me, is always ‘You could have done more, faster, deeper’.

“The direction of travel might have been the right one - [but] why you didn't do more? Why didn’t you do it faster?

“In terms of where you want to perform at a higher level, get more communication flowing for your people and keep implementing the change on our roadmap faster than what you do now, it's never fast enough.

“Every time you pause and say, ‘Maybe I’ll wait for that one’, I would prefer to make a few more mistakes and have to correct them rather than implementing the changes too slowly.”