New Red Bull chief set for Christian Horner storm ahead of Belgian GP

Laurent Mekies is set to face his first major challenge since taking over from Christian Horner as Red Bull F1 team principal.

The former Racing Bulls boss heads to this weekend's Belgian Grand Prix with only two weeks of experience in the role under his belt after Horner was sacked with immediate effect on July 9.

Following the British GP last time out, the shock decision to axe Horner after 20 years at the helm of Red Bull Racing was confirmed, with no official reason for the change revealed.

The Milton Keynes-based outfit will be looking to move on from the controversies that have surrounded their garage over the past year, with Mekies' appointment ushering in a new era.

Nevertheless, he will be faced by a barrage of questions over Horner's sacking ahead of this weekend's race after the FIA confirmed he would be present in Friday's press conference at Spa-Francorchamps.

Mekies summoned for FIA duty at Belgian GP

As part of each F1 race weekend, the FIA schedule press conferences where the media get the chance to present any questions they may have for the stars of the grid.

Saturday and Sunday's media sessions feature the top three drivers from each event and therefore, cannot be summoned ahead of time. However, three scheduled press conferences take place on Thursday and Friday ahead of the weekend's action, with the former dedicated to the drivers and the latter the team principals

For Friday's session, Mekies has been called upon to attend his first press conference as Red Bull team principal, where he will be joined by Haas boss Ayao Komatsu and ex-Red Bull man Jonathan Wheatley, who now works as Sauber's principal.

Franco Colapinto, Fernando Alonso and Nico Hulkenberg are the drivers speaking first on Thursday, followed by Lewis Hamilton, Kimi Antonelli and Carlos Sainz later that afternoon.

Press conferences (all times BST)

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Written by

Kerry Violet - F1 News Editor

Having graduated from the University of Sheffield with a 2:1 in Journalism in 2022, Kerry continued her pursuit of finding a full-time position in motorsport through work with the F1 Arcade in London, where she got to meet true fans of the sport and make a live grand prix watch party memorable for them. It was here she realised her background in journalism and love of motorsport could be combined, going on to volunteer with the female-led platform Empoword Journalism. Having completed stints as a screen editor and sports editor, Kerry landed her first F1-specific editorial role with GPFans and has thoroughly enjoyed continuing to work more closely with the sport ever since. The access GPFans offers Kerry has allowed her to interview big names such as Naomi Schiff and David Coulthard and given her experiences she could only have dreamt of as a young F1 fan which she hopes to build on.

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