Red Bull F1 boss ready to poach talent from rivals after mass exodus

Red Bull

Red Bull F1 boss ready to poach talent from rivals after mass exodus

Red Bull have lost a number of key F1 staff

Kerry Violet F1 News Editor

F1 editor and journalist covering motorsport since 2024.

Tuesday 12 May 2026 19:42

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Red Bull F1 team principal Laurent Mekies has admitted he is willing to sign talent from rival teams if necessary in the wake of multiple key staff exits.

The energy drink giants are a shadow of the team that picked up back-to-back constructors' championships in 2022 and 2023 and helped Max Verstappen to four consecutive drivers' title victories between 2021 and 2024.

In the seasons that have passed since Red Bull's most successful stint since Sebastian Vettel's glory days in the 2010s, the F1 team have lost some major players, especially from their technical department.

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Not only did they lose chief technical officer Adrian Newey, but also chief engineering officer Rob Marshall, sporting director Jonathan Wheatley, head of race strategy Will Courtenay, CEO and team principal Christian Horner, advisor Helmut Marko, chief designer Craig Skinner, and now, head of racing and Verstappen's long-time race engineer, Gianpiero Lambiase.

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GP McLaren move prompts Red Bull poaching admission

Though Lambiase (affectionately known as GP) is not set to make the move to McLaren immediately, the papaya F1 squad have said he will make the switch to become chief racing officer at the Woking-based squad no later than 2028.

At the first race of the season since the news of Red Bull's latest staff loss, team principal Mekies was keen to clarify that GP still has 'two long years' ahead of him with the Milton Keynes-based outfit.

But the fact remains that GP is far from the first Red Bull staff member to be poached by McLaren, with both Marshall and Courtenay having already made the rival switch.

Speaking to the Sky Sports cameras at the Miami Grand Prix, Mekies provided insight into Red Bull's hiring process moving forward, saying: "As much as I said many times, we don't want to be defensive about the fact that we lost some talent, it's a fact, and it's been there for three or four years and as a result of that, it's the highest priority in the team to make sure that we create the environment in order to retain, develop and attract the best talent in the pit lane.

"We feel we have the best talent already, departments by departments, and that starts with Ben [Waterhouse] on the power unit side for his team and with Pierre [Wache] on the chassis side and his team.

"And under them, we feel we have the best talent, departments by departments. When we can, we will always try to see how we can promote internally. We have created a number of talents over the last few years, and we are proud of that, we want to continue."

The Frenchman who replaced Horner at the helm of the F1 squad last summer then admitted that he was not against looking elsewhere on the grid to bolster Red Bull's ranks, adding: "If and when we need to go and get a specific set of skills or experience from some of our dear competitors around the pit lane, we will do it... as we have done, you have seen last couple of weeks ago, we had a very good mix in our new structure, a very good mix of internal promotion with Ben Waterhouse having now an extended parameters and with Andrea Landi joining soon [from Racing Bulls]."

"We go and give the best chance to our talents and if we need to go elsewhere to inject, we will do it happily."

F1 Red Bull Laurent Mekies