谁睡得最好：劳朗·梅基斯
Motorsport.com撰文指出，红牛本赛季首次包揽双领奖台，令车队领队劳朗·梅基斯对现状感到满意，而与克里斯蒂安·霍纳乃至最终与赫尔穆特·马尔科分道扬镳，是顺应不同时代所需领导力的果断决定。
昨晚谁睡得最好：洛朗·梅基斯
红牛今年首次双车登上领奖台，并不是这位车队老板对目前局势感到满意的唯一原因。
不同的时代需要不同的领导者。
与克里斯蒂安·霍纳分道扬镳，最终又与赫尔穆特·马尔科分手，是一个大胆的举动——毕竟红牛曾凭借这两位从零打造出冠军之师的人取得过无数成功。
也许这正是问题的关键所在。红牛已经变成了一个类似马蜂窝的地方，内部政治、权力斗争接连不断，关键人物一个接一个地离开。重建一支车队所需要的领导者，与组建这支车队的领导者是完全不同的类型。
洛朗·梅基斯与这支车队的缔造者们可谓截然不同。这位法国人冷静、圆融、理性，而且似乎总是面带微笑，毫无疑问，他为红牛展现了一副非常不同的面貌。也许这种评价过于简单化了，毕竟你只有真正与他共事才能真正了解他。但我们现在已经可以开始看出，梅基斯正试图在这支一级方程式最成功的车队之一中培养一种什么样的文化。
当红牛在去年下半年重新开始赢得胜利时，梅基斯经常被问到，在本赛季初期的艰难开局之后，他认为自己个人对这种进步贡献了多少。他的回答往往是“零”，或者接近于零。他当时到任的时间还太短，还不足以产生多大影响。
有人会说，这人多好啊。也有人可能会说，他受过太多的公关训练了。
马克斯·维斯塔潘，红牛车队；伊萨克·哈贾尔，红牛车队
现在已经没有人真正再问他那个问题了。
红牛在2026年的进步有多少要归功于梅基斯，这一点依然无法量化。车队目前的处境确实比赛季初要好，而且可以这样说不算过分：即使红牛没有赢得这场研发竞赛，它至少在与迈凯伦并驾齐驱。最新一次升级让红牛在巴库拿到了本赛季首次双车登上领奖台，维斯塔潘距离胜利只差0.196秒。相比维斯塔潘和伊萨克·哈贾尔在中国站或日本站时的表现，这已经是相当大的进步。
其实一段时间以来已经出现了迹象。自从红牛在奥地利引入升级套件以来，只要维斯塔潘完成了大奖赛，他就登上了领奖台。尽管有两次未能完赛，但在这段时间里他的得分只比兰多·诺里斯少5分。
当然，红牛在2026赛季的首场胜利还有待到来。还有很多问题需要解决，包括维斯塔潘公开谈论过的神秘的赛车行为。
尽管缺少奖杯，但今年米凯斯个人已经取得了几场胜利。
留住维斯塔潘是最明显的一场胜利。是的，也许新合同里多出的几个零起到了帮助。但这也是一位就在几个月前还公开讨论自己到底还想在一级方程式中继续多久，而不仅仅是想为哪支车队效力的车手。
马克斯·维斯塔潘，红牛车队，洛朗·米凯斯，红牛车队领队
米基斯为红牛保住了其最重要的资产，多留了一段时间。维斯塔潘之所以愿意承诺续约，大概是因为他相信红牛能够重新回到经常夺冠的状态。维持这种信念，正是米基斯工作的重要部分。
然而，哈贾尔在巴库登上领奖台，或许才是最能体现米基斯处事方式的例子。这个周末哈贾尔不仅仅是重返工作岗位。他还带着一份全新的2027年红牛合同带来的安心感回归。周三，当他坐上巴库新闻发布厅里那张大得出奇的红色沙发时，他有不少令人愉快的话题可谈——首要的就是他的未来已经尘埃落定。
赛后，米基斯承认在哈贾尔复出之前就公布续约是有意为之。红牛只是想卸掉他身上的一些压力，并向他展示车队对他的信任有多深。对于坐在一级方程式历史上压力最大的那个车席上的车手来说，这一点值得注意。
哈贾尔此前因伤缺阵。他自己也承认，这次受伤是在练拳击时造成的。红牛完全可以先观察他伤愈复出后的表现，再决定是否与他签约。但车队实际上等于对他说：我们相信你。这个车席是你的。你已经证明得足够多了。也许当人们知道自己被重视时，确实会有更好的表现。
哈贾尔本人承认，他在巴库刻意放慢了节奏。最初他的首要任务就是不去撞到任何东西。直到后来他才开始冒险，逐渐建立信心，直到在排位赛中真正全力推进。随后他奉献了可以说是其一级方程式生涯中最出色的一场比赛。
如果在红牛旧的管理体制下，情况可能大不相同。在劳森于他缺席期间表现不俗之后，哈贾尔或许会带着对其未来的疑问回归。也许还会有人公开评论在拳击运动中受伤是否明智。哈贾尔或许会觉得必须立刻证明一切。
当然，这只是猜测。但驾驶第二辆红牛赛车的许多车手都恰好陷入了这样的恶性循环：一个早期的失误带来压力，压力又导致另一个失误，突然间一切都变得更加艰难。事后看来，在巴库站之前就给哈贾尔一份合同，堪称一步妙棋。
关于他在第二次效力红牛时的表现与第一次相比有何不同，已经有很多讨论，每个人都可以自由选择自己偏好的解释。但人们不禁会想，环境是否也起到了一定作用。两次的情况并非完全不同。劳森再次被扔进一辆不熟悉的赛车中，只参加有限几场比赛。但这一次，他看起来判若两人。
也许，当你并不觉得自己非得在一场比赛、一节练习与排位或一圈之内证明一切时，把工作继续推进下去反而更容易——尤其是当再也没有一位刻薄的奥地利老板会在第二天早上六点打电话告诉你“你一无是处”的时候。
这些并不意味着梅基斯是比霍纳或马尔科更好的领导者。这么说会很荒谬。在他们两人的掌管下，红牛几乎赢下了所有能赢的东西。梅基斯要取得哪怕他们成就的一小部分，还有大量工作要做。
但领导一支一级方程式车队并没有唯一正确的方式。也许巴库站提供了又一个信号，表明我们正开始理解梅基斯治下的红牛是什么样子。
同样值得记住的是，尽管霍纳对车队的影响力正在减弱，他的遗产并没有消失。红牛的前任老板自己那个周六大概过得相当愉快——看着老东家的赛车在巴库2.2公里的大直道上飞驰，速度几乎比任何其他赛车都快。
在米尔顿凯恩斯建立红牛动力系统部门，毕竟是霍纳最大的一次豪赌之一。如今梅基斯本人将这台动力单元形容为“出色”，而国际汽联现行的评价体系也实际上将其认定为标杆——尽管这个体系本身可能颇为奇怪。
霍纳大概也很享受赛后浏览新闻的时光。
他的名字出现在瓦塞尔的话语中，瓦塞尔承认，在围绕他自身前途的持续猜测中，法拉利“并非在完全平静的氛围中工作”。尽管瓦塞尔在媒体见面会上努力开玩笑、谈笑风生，但霍纳最近接受《泰晤士报》的采访显然惹恼了他——而惹恼其他一级方程式车队领队，似乎一直是霍纳乐在其中的事情。
梅基斯与霍纳的故事或许还会出现一个有趣的转折。法拉利车队领队一职，无疑是梅基斯在马拉内罗工作那些年里必然渴望得到的。他最终没有得到便离开了法拉利，经由小红牛车队，反倒成了红牛的掌门人。如今霍纳——那位梅基斯最终继承了其旧职的人——却与梅基斯从未得到的法拉利职位联系在了一起。也许这两人的纠葛还没完。
这仍然是一个相当疯狂、令人难以想象的局面。但不同的时代需要不同的领导者。
红牛决定，它的下一个篇章需要的是一个面带微笑的法国人，而不是一个咄咄逼人、擅长政治手腕的英国人。也许终有一天，法拉利会决定它需要的恰恰相反。
英文原文
Who slept best last night: Laurent Mekies
Red Bull’s first double podium of the year isn’t the only reason for its boss to be satisfied with how things are going
Different times require different leaders.
Parting ways with Christian Horner, and eventually Helmut Marko, was a bold move after all the success Red Bull enjoyed with the duo who built the squad from scratch into a title-winning machine.
Perhaps that was the point. Red Bull had become something of a wasps’ nest, with internal politics, power struggles and key people leaving one after another. Rebuilding a team requires a very different kind of leader than one who assembles it.
Laurent Mekies could hardly be more different from the team's creators. Calm, diplomatic, rational and seemingly always smiling, the Frenchman certainly presents a very different face for Red Bull. An overly simplistic assessment of someone you’d really have to work with to understand, maybe. But we're now starting to see what kind of culture Mekies is trying to cultivate at one of Formula 1's most successful teams.
When Red Bull started winning again in the second half of last year, Mekies was often asked how much he thought he personally had contributed to that progress after a difficult start to the season. His answer was often "zero", or close to it. He simply hadn’t been there long enough to influence much.
What a nice guy, some would say. Too well PR-trained, others might argue.
Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing, Isack Hadjar, Red Bull Racing
Nobody really asks him that question anymore.
How much of Red Bull’s progress in 2026 is down to Mekies remains impossible to quantify. It is certainly in a better place than at the start of the season, and it’s probably not unreasonable to suggest that, if Red Bull isn’t winning the development race, it is at least keeping pace with McLaren in that field. Its latest upgrade delivered Red Bull’s first double podium of the season in Baku, with Max Verstappen missing victory by just 0.196s. Compared to where Verstappen and Isack Hadjar were in China or Japan, that is quite some progress.
There have been signs for a while. Since Red Bull’s Austria package was introduced, whenever Verstappen has finished a grand prix he has been on the podium. Despite two non-finishes, he has scored only five points fewer than Lando Norris over that period.
The first win of the 2026 season for Red Bull is still to come, of course. There are plenty of issues to sort out too, including mysterious car behaviours Verstappen has openly discussed.
Despite a lack of trophies, there have already been a couple of victories for Mekies personally this year.
Keeping Verstappen was the most obvious one. Yes, perhaps a few extra zeroes in a new contract helped. But this is also a driver who only a few months ago was openly discussing how long he even wanted to continue in Formula 1, rather than merely which team he wanted to drive for.
Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing, Laurent Mekies, Red Bull Racing Team Principal
Mekies has secured Red Bull’s biggest asset for a little longer. Verstappen presumably wouldn’t have committed had he not believed Red Bull could return to winning regularly. Maintaining that belief is very much part of Mekies’ job.
Yet it's Hadjar’s Baku podium that might be the best illustration yet of Mekies’ approach. Hadjar didn’t merely return to his duties this weekend. He returned with the reassurance of a fresh Red Bull contract for 2027. When he landed on the ridiculously large red couch in Baku’s press conference room on Wednesday, he had plenty of pleasant things to discuss — first and foremost the fact that his future was already sorted.
After the race, Mekies acknowledged that announcing Hadjar before his comeback was intentional. Red Bull simply wanted to remove some of the pressure and show him how much it trusted him. That feels noteworthy for a driver occupying what has historically been Formula 1’s ultimate pressure-cooker seat.
Hadjar had been out injured. He has now himself admitted the injury was sustained while boxing. Red Bull could easily have waited to see how he returned before committing to him. Instead, the team effectively told him: we trust you. The seat is yours. You have already proved enough. Perhaps people really do perform better when they know they are valued.
Hadjar himself admitted he deliberately took things slowly in Baku. His priority initially was simply not to hit anything. Only later did he start taking risks, building confidence until he was properly pushing in qualifying. And then he produced arguably the best race of his F1 career.
It could have been different under the old Red Bull regime. Hadjar might instead have returned with questions hanging over his future after Liam Lawson’s decent run in his absence. There might have been public comments about the wisdom of injuring yourself while boxing. Perhaps Hadjar would have felt he needed to prove everything immediately.
That is speculation, of course. But plenty of drivers in that second Red Bull have fallen into precisely that spiral: an early mistake creates pressure, pressure creates another mistake, and suddenly everything becomes harder. Giving Hadjar the contract before Baku looks, in hindsight, like a brilliant move.
Plenty has already been said about how different his second Red Bull stint looked compared to his first, and everyone is free to choose their preferred explanation. But you can’t help wondering whether the environment played a part. The circumstances weren’t entirely dissimilar. Lawson was again thrown into an unfamiliar car for a limited number of races. This time, though, he looked like a different driver.
Perhaps it is simply easier to get on with the job when you don’t feel the desperate need to prove everything in one race, one session or one lap — and when there is no prospect of a nasty Austrian boss calling you at 6am the following morning to inform you that you’re useless.
None of this means Mekies is a better leader than Horner or Marko. That would be ridiculous to state. With both of them in charge, Red Bull won almost everything there was to win. Mekies still has an enormous amount to do before he can claim even a fraction of their achievements.
But there is no single correct way to lead a Formula 1 team. And perhaps Baku offered another indication that we are beginning to understand what Mekies’ Red Bull looks like.
It is also worth remembering that, while his influence on the team is growing, Horner’s legacy hasn’t disappeared. Red Bull’s former boss probably had quite an enjoyable Saturday himself, watching the cars of his former team fly down Baku’s 2.2km straight faster than pretty much anything else.
Building Red Bull Powertrains in Milton Keynes was, after all, one of Horner’s biggest gambles. Now Mekies himself describes the resulting power unit as “fantastic”, while the FIA’s current system has effectively identified it as the benchmark - however peculiar that system might be.
Horner probably enjoyed browsing the news after the race too.
His name appeared in quotes from Fred Vasseur, who admitted Ferrari was “not working in perfect serenity” amid the constant speculation over his own future. As much as Vasseur tried to joke and laugh during his media session, Horner had clearly managed to annoy him with his recent interview with The Times - and annoying other F1 team bosses was always something Horner appeared to enjoy enormously.
And there could yet be an amusing twist to the Mekies-Horner story. The Ferrari team principal role is one Mekies himself would surely have coveted during his years at Maranello. He eventually left Ferrari without getting it and, via Racing Bulls, ended up in charge of Red Bull instead. Now Horner - the man whose old job Mekies ultimately inherited — is being linked with the Ferrari position Mekies never got. Perhaps the two haven't finished with each other yet.
It remains a pretty wild scenario to contemplate. But different times require different leaders.
Red Bull decided its next chapter needed a smiling Frenchman rather than an aggressive and political Englishman. It may still be that one day Ferrari decides it needs the opposite.
Motorsport.com ·
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