Laurent Mekies: New Pink Bull CEO and workforce principal says it ‘nonetheless feels unreal’ as he replaces Christian Horner | F1 Information

New Pink Bull workforce principal Laurent Mekies says it “nonetheless feels unreal” to interchange Christian Horner as he spoke for the primary time since touchdown the function.

Mekies, who was Racing Bulls boss, is simply Pink Bull’s second workforce principal as Horner had been in cost since they joined the grid in 2005, main them to 6 drivers and eight constructors’ titles.

The Frenchman started his F1 profession on the Arrows workforce within the early 2000s earlier than switching to Minardi, which was purchased by Pink Bull in 2005 and rebranded as Toro Rosso.

He joined the FIA as security director in 2014 and deputy race director in 2017, then made the swap to Ferrari in 2018 as sporting director, and later deputy workforce principal, earlier than returning to the Pink Bull household at first of 2024 as workforce principal at Racing Bulls.

“It nonetheless feels unreal to be right here and to not see him [Horner],” mentioned Mekies on a deliberate filming day for Pink Bull at Silverstone on Thursday.

“It will be unimaginable to underestimate the dimensions of the achievement this workforce has had underneath 20 years of Christian’s management.

“I met him 20 years in the past when he was the youngest workforce principal in F1 and it is unbelievable to see how he is turned this place to the extent it’s now.

“That journey, the various titles and wins. Christian can be the man, with Helmut [Marko] and Oliver {Mintzlaff] that introduced me again to the Pink Bull household two years in the past. All the primary ideas are with him right now.”

Mekies: Pink Bull not underestimating problem forward

Since dominating the 2023 season and the early levels of 2024, Pink Bull have been caught and overtaken by McLaren within the pecking order.

Max Verstappen nonetheless managed to win a fourth consecutive Drivers’ Championship final yr however is 69 factors behind Oscar Piastri on this yr’s title race.

Pink Bull have had points with their second seat for the final six years after Pierre Gasly, Alex Albon, Sergio Perez, Liam Lawson and now Yuki Tsunoda have all largely struggled as team-mates to Verstappen.

Their automobile benefit in 2022 and 2023 meant they received the Constructors’ Championship however the deficit between Verstappen and his team-mates has triggered main issues once they haven’t had the perfect automobile.

Pink Bull are additionally taking up the key problem of making their very own engine, with the assistance of Ford, for subsequent yr’s regulation change, which Mekies introduced up in his first interview for the workforce.

“I take a look at this workforce as most exterior take a look at them, we see the perfect folks on the planet at what they do,” he mentioned.

“That is what this workforce is, even from being a competitor beforehand you take a look at Pink Bull Racing as being the sharpest workforce, having managed to build up the perfect expertise to work collectively.

“It’s a privilege to affix the workforce and the main focus will probably be on ensuring all of the proficient folks right here have what they should carry out at their greatest, as a result of they’re already the perfect.

“We will probably be focussing on that and ensuring the Pink Bull power is flowing by the workforce. We aren’t underestimating the problem forward, we’ll want everyone and we’ll go about it collectively and I’m certain with everybody’s contributions we’ll deal with this problem.”

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