Motor racing-Mekies hails sacked Horner for his support
SPA-FRANCORCHAMPS, Belgium (Reuters) -New Red Bull Formula One team boss Laurent Mekies praised predecessor Christian Horner on Friday and revealed the Briton had been supportive and kept in touch since his sudden sacking two weeks ago.
Mekies has been promoted from sister team Racing Bull to become only the second Red Bull principal since the energy drink brand entered the sport in 2005.
"Yes, we have spoken," the Frenchman told reporters at the Belgian Grand Prix, his first race at the helm.
"He has been nothing other than supportive, even in the extremely difficult context for him.
"He was the first one to text, he was the first one to call. I think again this morning or yesterday, we texted each other again."
Mekies said nobody would replace Horner as a character and he certainly would not try to do the job in a similar manner to the Briton, who had been in charge at Milton Keynes for more than 20 years.
Instead, he said he would seek to "empower" more of his staff and rely on the existing strengths within the team.
Horner has not spoken publicly since his July 9 sacking, although he did address factory staff before leaving.
Mekies said he had been contacted "out of the blue" by Red Bull's head of corporate projects Oliver Mintzlaff and motorsport consultant Helmut Marko to offer him the job of principal.
His immediate response was to ask for time to consider, and then he put the phone down.
"First thought obviously goes to, in this moment as well, to Christian," he explained. "Because it's not something that, you know, I could have expected. And he had been nothing else than extremely supportive with me these last two years."
Mekies said he had then called back and accepted the challenge.
"You just say, of course. You know, if you think you need me there, I will go there."
Mekies said providing the team's four-times world champion Max Verstappen with a fast car was a priority, as that would then resolve other issues about his future plans, and morale was holding up.
"The focus is very much to, as we said earlier, try to get to know the team as quickly as possible in order to see how we can support, how we can build the next step of competitiveness in order to get a fast car," he said.
"And hence, to make it an easy call for Max."
(Reporting by Alan Baldwin, editing by...)
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