It was a lightning-fast job change that raised eyebrows across Formula 1. Laurent Mekies went from being Racing Bulls team boss to leading Red Bull Racing in just one week—with no break in between.
This unusual move has some teams concerned, especially McLaren.
The British outfit has long questioned how Red Bull manages its two teams. Now they’re wondering if Mekies might be carrying valuable inside information from one garage to the other.
“This is an interesting topic and quite complex,” McLaren team boss Andrea Stella told GPblog. “We have to be wary that we don’t approach it in too simplistic a way.”
McLaren has previously raised concerns about team independence in F1.
“It’s a question that should be discussed as part of putting the sport in a very solid, fair position,” Stella explained. “Any team that operates in a fully independent way should be protected against the benefits that can be exploited when teams depend on one another.”
The speed of Mekies’ transition has certainly caught attention.
Most F1 team leaders face lengthy “gardening leave” periods when switching employers—sometimes up to a year—to prevent them from taking fresh secrets to competitors.
“At the moment, we at McLaren trust that the regulations in place and the way they’re enforced are already a valid way of mitigating any potential risk,” Stella added.
But he’s clearly not completely satisfied with the current situation.
“Definitely, we think this is a topic that can be part of constructive conversations in the future to see if there’s a way of approaching the matter of team independence in an evolved way compared to where we are now.”
Stella’s comments echo what McLaren CEO Zak Brown has been saying for months. The American executive believes the same owner shouldn’t control multiple teams, fearing they could help each other in ways that disadvantage truly independent competitors.
With Formula 1 set to welcome an eleventh team soon, the timing of this debate couldn’t be more relevant.
