“It was a unique opportunity": Former Ferrari employee Laurent Mekies on his departure to Red Bull sister team

Former Ferrari racing director and Red Bull sister team Visa Cash App RB team principal, Laurent Mekies, claimed that joining the Faenza-based team was a 'unique opportunity' for him. The French engineer had previously worked with the outfit during its Toro Rosso days and even served as its deputy sporting director before making the move to Ferrari in 2018.

It was announced in mid-2023 that he would be leaving his job as deputy team principal of Ferrari and returning to the Red Bull family under the rebranded Visa Cash App RB for the 2024 season.

Speaking with PlanetF1 in an exclusive, Laurent Mekies talked about the difficulty of leaving the Prancing Horses, as well as the unmissable opportunity of leading Red Bull's sister team. He said:

“It’s always going to be very difficult for a Formula 1 fan or car fan to leave Ferrari because of what it represents as a fan. But the reality is that it’s completely unique to be given the possibility to be associated with a project that effectively we look at as if it were a new team."

"From a shareholder perspective, we look at it as if it was a new team and equally that team has an extraordinary base. It was a unique opportunity and this is why I decided to make the jump.”

Red Bull's sister team boss gives his take on Daniel Ricciardo's importance in the outfit

Laurent Mekies stated that having eight-time race winner Daniel Ricciardo in the VCARB F1 team was hugely important for them as he brought a wealth of experience to them in their new guise.

As quoted by the aforementioned source, the Frenchman said:

“It’s a huge luck for this team to have a pairing [of] Yuki and Daniel. Daniel specifically, in the context of the projects, where the team needs to go and helping identify the gaps, it hugely helps to have somebody like Daniel that won eight races, has been at a few teams and knows where the board can be and where the board needs to go. So his input into the team has been massive."

He accepted that the Aussie driver has made a rough start to the year but claimed that it was "very much the name of the game that we do every year" and the team "have been working very hard with him, with his crew, with his development crew on getting that sorted”.

The Red Bull sister team is currently P6 in the Constructor's Championship with 24 points and is behind Aston Martin by 20 points after eight races and Two Sprints. Interestingly, Ricciardo has only scored five points in the team's total, while his teammate Yuki Tsunoda has contributed 19 points thus far.