Mekies dodges the media as Red Bull chief flees after China disaster

Ahead of the 2026 Formula 1 season, no one had high expectations for Red Bull Powertrains - the team's in-house engine department in association with Ford, which was starting from scratch. It was always expected to be a long-term project for Red Bull to be competitive with a completely new engine. However, it turns out there are bigger problems than the engine after a difficult start to the year.

The Red Bull engine is certainly not perfect, but when you look at sister team, Racing Bulls, they are performing just fine with it as a midfield team. In fact, in the Chinese GP, Racing Bulls was the better of the two Red Bull teams in both the sprint race and the Grand Prix. Great for Racing Bulls, but especially painful for Red Bull Racing’s technical department.

Design chief Pierre Waché and his men disappoint with the car they have delivered for 2026. If Racing Bulls can fight at the front of the midfield, then Red Bull Racing, with its resources, should at least be competing at the front. Yet Red Bull is stuck in the midfield due to a subpar car.

Naturally, many will quickly look back to 2025, when Red Bull Racing kept developing the car until the end of the season in the hope of pulling off an amazing recovery and clinch the drivers' championship. But, according to Verstappen, that’s no excuse: “No, because you could say the same from 2021 to 2022, and we were definitely very quick in 2022,” Verstappen said in response to a question from GPblog that his team had taken their eye off the ball.

After a major setback, Verstappen spoke to the media politely. First to the broadcasters, then the written press. Where a session usually last about three to four minutes, the four-time world champion spent a full seven fielding questions. He duly met his obligations, even after a bad day. The same could not be said of his team boss Laurent Mekies, who swerved his planned media session.

Like Christian Horner before him, who also had a habit of not showing up for the written media session after a poor result - suddenly the Brit had to catch his flight, or the session was “accidentally” scheduled exactly when Toto Wolff was also speaking in the neighbouring hospitality.

With the departure of Horner and his communications team, there was promise of a new approach. Red Bull no longer wanted to be a team that was vilified in the paddock. They said they would communicate more openly and project a cheerful image. However, upon the the first setback, those have proved to be empty promises.

The scheduled session with Mekies did not take place. Members of the written press were politely waiting and left without an explanation. A few journalists who took it upon themselves to ask when the would be held only to be told that Mekies had left to catch his flight - without facing the music.

At the time of writing, there is still no trace of an official statement on his absence. The team that promised to communicate more openly is now a shut-up shop. Mekies, who was supposed to usher in a new era, is unavailable for comment at the first sign of adversity.

The contrast with the other top teams is stark. Mercedes also had difficult seasons between 2022 and 2025, but Wolff is always present for his media session. No matter how bad the race was, Wolff showed up as expected. The same can be said of Frédéric Vasseur and Andrea Stella of Ferrari and McLaren respectively. Good race or bad, they always show up to provide the media, and therefore the fans, with a reaction.

In that respect, Red Bull has slipped back into the midfield not only on the track but off it as well.