Christian Horner holds covert meeting with Ferrari chief with changes brewing at Red Bull
A behind-closed-doors meeting involving several of the top names in F1 was recently held.
Christian Horner on Red Bull's success and hints at next step
Red Bull chief Christian Horner reportedly met with Ferrari president John Elkann and team principal Frederic Vasseur for crunch talks. The trio were said to have chatted in the paddock during the Monaco Grand Prix before Elkann and Vasseur then headed to Horner’s motorhome to continue their secret discussions.
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They were engaged in conversations regarding staff upheaval at Red Bull’s junior team AlphaTauri, as Ferrari race director Laurent Mekies has been named the new team principal - replacing the retiring Franz Tost. He is set to work in tandem with former FIA secretary general Peter Bayer, who is taking on the CEO position at the team.
With the positions set, Red Bull and Ferrari have hit a stumbling block regarding gardening leave. The three key men were locked in discussions according to Formu1a.uno over the time that Mekies should spend on gardening leave, which could be six months although the possibility still remains of him leaving Ferrari before this weekend’s Spanish Grand Prix.
That chance still exists because the team already have their replacement for Mekies lined up, as Ferrari reportedly have agreed terms with several high-profile additions to leave Red Bull - who would also be subject to gardening leave should those deals go through.
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Despite the many changing parts, Ferrari and Red Bull may not be on good terms as Elkann and co were not best pleased that Mekies would replace Tost at AlphaTauri. The announcement was made earlier than planned after news was leaked to the media, as Tost explained that some parties were “not happy” at the time.
“The announcement, to tell you the truth, was not planned to come up now, this was planned much later,” Tost told Motorsport.com. “But as you all [journalists are] very professional, there were some leaks in the press.
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“And I didn’t want to come here to Baku – it was in the Gazzetta dello Sport, for example, that Laurent will come to us – and to tell all to you, ‘no, I don’t know anything,’ because it’s not the way of how we are working.
“So, we said ‘okay, we go out with the press release.’ It was planned to do at a later time in the year. But now it’s out. And of course, I can imagine that some people are not happy about this.”
It has been a difficult season for AlphaTauri with just two points taken from the first six races, as Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko made his dissatisfaction public. Red Bull CEO Oliver Mintzlaff ordered that the junior team become more of an integral part of the organisation but Mekies, who will be an important part of that synergy, remains in the dark over when he will be able to complete his switch from Ferrari.
