How Red Bull has changed one year after Christian Horner's shock sacking

Between Max Verstappen's epic comeback in the 2025 Drivers' title race, to Isack Hadjar emerging as the best hope the Austrian outfit have had in years when it comes to lifting that second seat curse up against the Dutchman - this is the story of Laurent Mekies' first year as Red Bull boss.

Making the step up from the sister team Racing Bulls, Mekies was immediately tasked with getting Red Bull back on form, with Verstappen faltering in the standings with a difficult RB21 car, and both Liam Lawson and Yuki Tsunoda struggling in that second seat.

With Verstappen quickly crediting Mekies' 'common sense' approach and engineering background, the Dutchman's superb charge back into the 2025 title fight began.

Speaking after an emphatic victory at Monza - Mekies' fourth race in charge as Horner's replacement - the four-time world champion said: "With Laurent having an engineering background, he’s asking the right questions to the engineers – common-sense questions – so I think that works really well."

For Verstappen, improvements had already been clear since the previous race at the Dutch GP, where his gap to the championship stood at a whopping 104-point deficit. “I definitely felt that in Zandvoort already we took a step that seemed to work quite well, and then here another step which felt again a little bit better.”

By the season's end at Abu Dhabi, 104 points had become just two, as the Dutchman took a further five victories after Monza to take the championship all the way to the end against McLaren's Lando Norris.

Reflecting on the 2025 season, Verstappen said he was "very proud" of his "second family" at Red Bull, choosing to focus on that remarkable turnaround rather than missing out by just two points. Interestingly, however, despite Mekies being credited with said turnaround, Christian Horner has recently suggested Red Bull's revival would have happened regardless of his dismissal.

The epic 2025 comeback had consequences, however, with it very quickly becoming clear in early 2026 that Red Bull had not been able to develop a car capable of challenging for the title once again.

With the departed Horner having been a driving force behind the debut of their first-ever in-house powertrain, working alongside Ford, Red Bull have faced an uphill battle against the likes of Mercedes, Ferrari and McLaren. The Milton Keynes team have struggled with car balance, weight and the inevitable challenge of introducing a brand new power unit under regulations as complex as those in 2026.

A consequence of the late development charge in 2025? Mekies thinks so, telling F1's Beyond the Grid in April: “We thought, and we still think, it was the right thing to do because turning the page to 2026 would have been a bit of an easy escape." He later added: "So yes, we are paying a bit of the price today. Do we use it as an excuse? No.”

Then, in June, Red Bull were told that they had in fact developed the best internal combustion engine (ICE) after the first round of F1 2026's Additional Development and Upgrade Opportunities (ADUO) - a remarkable achievement considering the Red Bull-Ford project was their first-ever in F1, but one that will surely hinder them this season.

Under ADUO, those behind the benchmark power unit are in line for at least one upgrade this season, and another next year, and with Red Bull already 205 points behind championship leaders Mercedes, the surprise findings will cause as much frustration as they will pride in Milton Keynes.

Before Horner's July 2025 dismissal, Red Bull had already been losing key figures, such as legendary designer Adrian Newey (Aston Martin), chief engineer Rob Marshall (McLaren) and sporting director Jonathan Wheatley. Under Mekies, that problem is yet to go away.

In December 2025, Verstappen lost perhaps his closest confidant in F1, Red Bull's motorsport advisor Helmut Marko, who had been responsible for bringing through talents such as Verstappen, Sebastian Vettel and Daniel Riccardo throughout a 20-year tenure.

Then, in April, it was announced the Dutchman's right hand man, race engineer Gianpiero 'GP' Lambiase will be leaving the Austrian outfit for current world champions McLaren in 2028. Speculation currently surrounds chief engineer Paul Monaghan, who has been linked with a move away to Cadillac.

Since Lambiase's departure, Mekies has vowed to make retaining, developing and attracting talent to Red Bull the "highest priority." Losing two key allies at Red Bull, however, has inevitably led to increasing speculation on whether Verstappen himself could be next to go - with rumours rampant over his own potential move to McLaren.

Arguably the biggest positive so far during the 2026 season has been Red Bull's promotion of Isack Hadjar from Racing Bulls. On the back of an impressive rookie season at the sister team, the Frenchman has taken on the daunting task of being Verstappen's teammate, and has more than held his own.

At the latest round of F1 action in Silverstone, Hadjar outqualified his teammate for the second time this season, finishing two places up on Verstappen in P5. Ever since a difficult weekend in Miami, where Hadjar crashed out on Lap 5, the 21-year-old has finished within the top six at every round - just missing out on his maiden Red Bull podium at Monaco after a controversial reinstatement of Pierre Gasly's on-track P3.

Given Red Bull's historic struggles in that second seat, dating all the way back to Ricciardo's departure in 2018, Hadjar's continuing form in 2026 ought to be regarded as a major success at Red Bull ever since Horner's sacking.

For the 18 months or so prior to Horner's exit, Verstappen's future was coming under increasing speculation and uncertainty - not least after Jos Verstappen said the team risked tearing itself apart should Horner remain with the team in March 2024.

A year after Horner's departure, have things really changed? Well, with speculation swirling of an 'imminent' announcement of the Dutchman's potential switch to McLaren, disagreements over race strategy at Silverstone, rumoured attempts to buy out Verstappen's exit clause, and high-profile meetings taking place, you'd be forgiven for thinking not so much.

While nothing has indeed been announced, the noise around Verstappen and McLaren continues to stick around, with McLaren's Oscar Piastri a logical candidate to swap with the Dutchman at Milton Keynes. Whether or not a move will come to fruition remains to be seen, but the latest episode in the saga over Verstappen's future will surely have Red Bull asking themselves if enough has truly changed since Horner's shock dismissal.