Following Gianpiero Lambiase’s signing by McLaren F1 Team, team boss Zak Brown comments on the “downfall” of Red Bull Racing. The Milton Keynes-based team has lost a lot of staff members recently, so the question arises: Are they still to be considered a top team, and would it be bad for Formula 1 to only have three top teams instead of four?
It’s a reset, not a setback for Red Bull
“I think it would be very foolish to write Red Bull off,” Zak Brown clarified from the beginning in a media session at Woking. “I also think Audi’s done a very good job. So I think it would be foolish to not think the other teams are going to move up the grid quickly,” he continued.
F1 is a fast-paced sport that changes just as quickly. This means that teams and their staff members must also reach a competitive level quickly. If they cannot, changes must be made. However, change does not necessarily mean setbacks. Change can be a reset.
“I think things are only going to consolidate over time, not widen. And we see how quickly the sport can change and how people quickly can get competitive and then sometimes not. I think they have to kind of do a little bit of a reset, right?”
Since last season, Red Bull has started losing some of its biggest names in the team. Major changes like these can disrupt a team and its competitiveness massively.
“They lost a lot of people, Christian [Horner], [Jonathan] Wheatley, GP eventually, [Adrian] Newey,” Brown listed the names of Red Bull’s recent losses.
Brown compared Red Bull’s situation similar to him joining McLaren in 2016 when they had major staff changes as well: “So I think much what I came into, which was a different situation because they were very competitive, but the majority of their pit walls changed.”
Brown praises Mekies and trusts he will whip Red Bull back into shape
“So I think Laurent’s [Mekies] going to come in. I rate Laurent. I think he does a very good job. He’s technical. He’s young,” Brown praised Red Bull’s current team principal.
“And I think he’s got to rebuild the people that he lost and rebuild the team. And I have no doubt he will. And much like McLaren had an immense amount of talent that just needed to be unlocked. I think that’s probably the same as Red Bull. They’ve been very dominant up to not very long ago. So there’s a lot of talent in there and I think he’ll just need to get it redirected.”
The McLaren team boss concluded that Laurent Mekies possesses all the qualities required by a top team: immense talent. He believes that Mekies can channel this talent and help Red Bull return to the top, so they should not be counted out just yet.
