New Red Bull Formula 1 boss Laurent Mekies inevitably dominated his first press conference appearance on his team debut at the Belgian Grand Prix.
Mekies inadvertently left fellow FIA press conference attendees Jonathan Wheatley (Sauber) and Ayao Komatsu (Haas) with very little to do as he was left to field the vast majority of questions on Friday at Spa.
With Red Bull HQ being unusually secretive about the circumstances around Horner's exit and Mekies' appointment, plus what the plan is for the team's new era, this was a massive opportunity to try to understand more about the impact of a very significant leadership change.
Here is everything we learned from being among the media representatives to grill him for the first time.
Mekies didn't accept right away
Mekies has accepted a job at one of F1's most successful teams and the one that won last year's drivers' championship. A no-brainer, then, to leave a midfield outfit to take the role - right?
Not quite. Mekies revealed he did not actually accept the job right away. He was contacted by Red Bull CEO for new projects and corporate investments Oliver Mintzlaff and motorsport advisor Helmut Marko, to inform him that Horner was being removed from his positions and they wanted Mekies to replace him.
Mekies said this happened "a few hours" before it all emerged to the rest of the world, which is understood to mean Tuesday afternoon (Horner announced his exit to staff at Milton Keynes on Wednesday morning and it filtered out publicly shortly after). It "came out of the blue" to Mekies, who was in the Racing Bulls site in Milton Keynes - and he "asked them to think about it for a few hours", then hung up.
Mekies said it was "difficult to digest" before quickly realising "wait a second, it's Red Bull…with everything that Red Bull means, its energy, its spirits, how they go about their racing teams".
"You pick up the phone, you say, ‘of course'," he said. "It's an honour, it's a privilege.
"I guess it's then a matter of loyalty towards the brand. And you just say, ‘of course, if you think you need me there, I will go there'."
Red Bull hasn't told him why or why now
When The Race asked Mekies if the timing of the decision had been explained to him in his conversation with the shareholders and what had been outlined in terms of how Red Bull wants the team to work post-Horner, Mekies focused on the second part of the question.
But he was asked again later on, and claimed he has not been informed "why or why now" in terms of the rationale for the change or the timing. It was not just a major surprise to outsiders, it was a shock to Horner and all team members, especially coming so soon after the British Grand Prix and in the middle of another race-winning season.
"They outlined the sort of objective they have for the team moving forward," Mekies said. But that's it.
In sporting terms, the ambitions haven't changed. Short-term, medium-term, and long-term, Mekies said the expectation is to fight for championships. But that is not really happening in 2025, as another drivers' title looks like a long shot, and a major rules shift including Red Bull building its own engine (a decision Horner was central in) will dictate whether it has any title prospects in the years to come.
First hints of his priorities
Mekies was cautious about offering too much on what he felt needing addressing within Red Bull, but there were clues peppered amongst what he said about the task in hand.
It is understood that one of the factors that Red Bull's Austrian bosses did not like was Horner having total control over the key pillars of the organisation - Red Bull Racing, Red Bull Advanced Technologies, Red Bull Marketing and Red Bull Powertrains.
There are suggestions that a new structure will see four different bosses spread across these divisions, with Mekies taking charge of RBR.
Asked by The Race about a new way of organising things, Mekies hinted that perhaps a hold up in the past was decision-making getting stalled because too much was going through individuals.
"It's probably a bit early to talk about structure," he said. "But for sure, one thing that is very high in our priorities is to make sure that we can have the right focus, that we avoid any bottlenecking in the company at all levels."
There was also a reference that perhaps hinted at Red Bull wanting its racing team to get back to its core focus – and not revolve so much around a big personality team principal such as Horner.
Speaking about how to get the best out of the people Red Bull had, Mekies said: "You do not see weaknesses. You see a lot of desires from everyone, to get that Red Bull energy, to perhaps reduce the noise outside, just to concentrate on racing."
Was too much ‘noise' around Horner a contributing factor in his dismissal?
Team was in shock for first 24 hours
Mekies did not deny that he and his new team were both stunned by the news.
"For sure the first 24 hours was a big adjustment, because nobody was expecting it," he said.
"So, no question the first few hours after the announcement it was a surprise for everyone, and certainly a digestion phase for everyone."
There have been suggestions that Horner loyalists have not warmed immediately to the new regime, although this has primarily been targeted at Marko and Mintzlaff. Mekies is widely respected in F1 and has been lauded by his peers for his reputation as a good people manager - which will be critical to win over any sceptics who are resistant to the change.
But Mekies said he has not had a bad reception at the factory.
"I've been only finding a huge amount of support from everyone," he insisted.
"They just want to go racing. They are hugely respectful, and we all are, in the achievements that have been made under Christian's leadership.
"Can I be hoping for more support, openness from the people I've been meeting these last two weeks? No, everybody has been incredibly supportive, willing to open the door, willing to speak, to listen - what were their limitations? What was the strengths? How do we go next about going back to the race track and fighting at an even higher level tomorrow?
"That's what I found."
He wants to unlock 'hidden laptime'
The impression from Mekies is that he is arriving at a team that has all the ingredients it needs to succeed – it just perhaps has not got the most out of everybody.
He has found nothing but committed, talented and hard-working people inside Milton Keynes. The task now is to get them working together better so they can deliver more.
"All I've been seeing in these two weeks is extraordinary talents, incredible racing spirit," he said. "These guys go on the edge, on every single aspect.
"There is not a single department where you see a feeling of laying back or resting. They really are at war in the good sense of the word.
"What we are going to try to do is to make sure that all these women and men, they have everything they need to express themselves at best, that they are supported, that they have all the means that they need to have to show their talent."
And giving people what they needed, he reckoned, was worth more performance than even car developments.
"We call it the hidden laptime," he said. "It's not a lap time that will appear on your windtunnel tracker, on your engine power tracker.
"It's how much your people are engaged, how much they are motivated, how much they trust each other, and how much they help each other."
Horner has backed him - even this weekend
Across interviews with Red Bull's in-house media, F1, and now the assembled press at the Belgian GP, Mekies has made a big effort to mention Horner a lot and pay tribute to his predecessor.
He said that Horner was among his first thoughts when he got the job offer, and it is not just lip service. Horner played a big part in Mekies' second Red Bull career as he helped bring him into the fold from Ferrari to be the team boss at Racing Bulls - as Horner's influence (which ultimately Red Bull grew to disapprove of) extended to steering the sister team as well.
The two have a good relationship, to the point that Mekies' kind words in public about Horner have been reciprocated in private. Mekies said he has been "nothing else than extremely supportive" over recent years, and that includes the last two weeks.
It is understood that Horner contacted Mekies soon after finding out he would replace him and offered his support any time. Mekies said "he was the first one to text, he was the first one to call" - and that they've even been in touch this week.
"Again, this morning or yesterday, we text each other again," Mekies said.
"So, he has been nothing other than supportive, which is very impressive in the context."
He needs to make Verstappen's decision 'easy'
There is no doubt that one of Mekies' most pressing tasks is to keep star driver Max Verstappen on for the long haul – especially with there being performance-based exit clauses in his current contract.
But rather than feeling that the best way to achieve this is by sitting down and selling a future dream to the four-time champion, Mekies thinks his mission will be best served by simply producing the best car possible.
"In terms of priority, I'm sure Max wants a fast car," said Mekies. "If we get him a fast car, I'm sure it's cancelling out all the other considerations.
"So really, the focus is very much to try to get to know the team as quickly as possible, in order to see how we can support, how we can build the next step of competitiveness in order to get a fast car - and hence to make it an easy call for Max."
Mekies doesn't intend to ape Horner
One point raised immediately after Horner's exit was that, for better or worse, he was one of F1's biggest characters and would be a loss for Red Bull and the championship simply because of his profile.
Mekies is more quiet and considered, lower-key in terms of public persona although a prominent and well-respected member of the F1 paddock. And that has been a big point of discussion pre-weekend and in the Spa paddock: how different will Red Bull be with such a contrasting leader, and is that simply what Red Bull needs right now?
Mekies offered a first clue insofar as he has no intention of apeing Horner. He said "nobody is going to replace his character" or "replace him like for like".
"I come in to do the CEO and the team principal job - is there any way one can do it in the same way as Christian? No, or at least not me," he said plainly.
But then came a hint that Mekies, who is very big on empowering other people, intends to encourage more individuals to be leaders at Red Bull. That would seem to fit with the wider Red Bull parent company desire to have the team itself fall in line as just another part of the corporate structure rather than its own, Horner-led standalone enterprise.
"We'll be relying on the incredible strengths that there is in this team," said Mekies.
"Everybody is stepping up."
