Paul Monaghan worked with Christian Horner at Red Bull for two decades and is understandably shocked by his sudden departure
Red Bull chief engineer Paul Monaghan admits that the dismissal of team boss Christian Horner came as a “shock” to him and concedes that it will be a big challenge for new boss Laurent Mekies to get the team back on track.
Horner, one of the most successful team bosses in Formula 1 history with eight drivers’ and six constructors’ titles, was unceremoniously removed from his position on July 9 and replaced by Mekies, who previously held the role of team boss at sister team Racing Bulls.
Monaghan joined Red Bull in 2005 as head of race engineering before taking on the role of chief engineer, working side by side with Horner at the helm of the team for two decades. He pays tribute to his former colleague for his achievements.
“I’m not going to shy away from the truth, it was a shock to me,” Monaghan admits, echoing the sentiments of several team members, including Horner and Mekies himself. “Sad. Christian has put a lot of his working life into this team.”
“As a team, we have celebrated a tremendous amount of success together – perhaps undeserved from some perspectives, but whatever. What’s done is done. I say thank you, Christian, for everything you’ve done for me personally and for this team,” said Monaghan.
Mekies now faces the task of leading one of the biggest teams in Formula 1 – perhaps the most difficult in terms of internal politics, as there is sometimes friction between the various interest groups.
“Laurent has been thrown into a pretty difficult situation,” said Monaghan. “I’ve known him for many years, he’s a very affable, intelligent guy.
”Now it’s up to us to stick together as a team, because there are nine other teams out there just waiting to fight us. If we want to stand up to them, we have to perform as a team. We are preparing to do just that. Laurent is doing everything he can to ensure that we pursue this goal. And that’s what we’re going to do.”
Help for Yuki Tsunoda
For Red Bull to remain successful, the second car in particular needs to improve significantly, as the changing drivers have so far failed to match team leader Max Verstappen.
While the four-time world champion has celebrated two victories this season, even outclassing the dominant McLarens, Liam Lawson and Yuki Tsunoda have only scored seven points between them in the second RB21.
That’s less than all other drivers except Oliver Bearman, Gabriel Bortoleto, and the second Alpine, which Jack Doohan drove at the start of the season before being replaced by Franco Colapinto.
On the challenge with Tsunoda, Monaghan says: “He’s getting faster. We’re not stopping. During the three-week break, we didn’t just put our feet up and go on vacation – maybe a day or two here and there.”
“But yes, we’re trying to help Yuki, just as we’re helping Max. It’s in our interest. We want him to get faster. He was really strong in Austria. Unfortunately, qualifying went wrong, which was terribly sad for him,” he says, referring to Tsunoda’s 18th place finish at the Red Bull Ring and subsequent collision with Colapinto in the race.
“That puts him in a very difficult position, there’s pressure and so on. It was better again at Silverstone. The race was a bit chaotic. Now we’re starting from scratch here, and I’m sure he’ll be fine.”
