“Hair counts the years!”: Mekies on surviving F1’s pressure cooker

After the departure of Christian Horner, Toto Wolff is the 'old guard' among the team bosses, overseeing their unprecedented success before Red Bull dominated, with McLaren now looking like the driving force of the grid in 2025.

During Friday's team bosses' press conference at the Belgian Grand Prix, which included GPblog, Haas' Ayao Komatsu, Jonathan Wheatley of Sauber, and new Red Bull boss Laurent Mekies were asked about holding their team boss position for 20 years, just as Horner did before his immediate firing.

"Twenty years? I don’t know. I didn’t think about it like that, to be honest," started Komatsu.

"I wanted to do Formula 1 since I was 14, then came to England when I was 18 and started working in 2003. Every year has been a new challenge. There’s never a moment of boredom at all. You continue to make progress as an individual, as a team, looking for the next stages. So, I don’t count the years. It just happened that I’ve been here for more than 20 years. But it’s as fresh as anything. It’s very exciting – new challenges we get every single time we do our job. I’m looking forward to new challenges continuously."

Former Red Bull Racing team principal was sacked after 20 years as the boss of the Austrian team, replaced by Frenchman Laurent Mekies

'I never thought I'd work with Dietrich Mateschitz'

Jonathan Wheatley, now the team boss of Sauber after leaving Red Bull in 2024, has spent 34 years in the pinnacle of motorsport, meeting many different figures along the way.

"Crikey, I never thought I’d meet somebody like Dietrich Mateschitz," the Brit started, remembering the former owner of Red Bull.

"What can happen in twenty years is extraordinary. The team he built, to be part of that journey, it was incredible.

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"There’s something in all of us, we share this positive energy and love for the sport. It’s well known that I started as a mechanic in 1991. I’m sat here as a team principal now. The opportunity that Formula 1 gives to people – I say to so many young people when I first meet them, when they’re coming into the business or trying to find out about it – I’m fully energised.

"I don’t know if I’ve got another 20 years at the cutting‑edge level," continued Wheatley. "But, it’s a remarkable sport. We’re all honoured and proud to be part of it."

Mekies: 'I have the best seat in F1'

New Red Bull team boss Mekies now takes up Horner's mantle after his 20-year stint as team boss, with the Frenchman aligning with the words of the other two team principals.

"The truth is, we are Formula 1 fans. That’s who we are. We have been from very early days, from childhood, and somehow without understanding exactly why and how you end up being paid to actually witness your hobby. To this date, for every single race, there will be a moment in the weekend where you get into the garage, where you plug in on the pit wall, and you have that feeling: 'I have the best seat to watch the race weekend.' That’s how we feel. I hope that’s also how a lot of you feel. That’s the passion we have in the sport.

"So, as a result, we don’t count the years – our hair is counting for us – but that’s really how you feel. We are extremely lucky, and that’s why it’s important to keep that perspective and keep the right energy and the right spirit when we come racing. As much as we are competitors and live and die for the competition, we are also hardcore fans – and very privileged hardcore fans," concluded Mekies.