Crimson Bull Racing introduced their successor to Helmut Marko, who led the group’s junior program for a very long time, as Gwen Lagrue of Mercedes.
Lagrue has been with Mercedes for 11 years, bringing alongside younger abilities like George Russell and Kimi Antonelli by way of the motive force’s academy.
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Naturally, along with his success in figuring out and growing expertise, Lagrue is notably certified to exchange Marko, a Crimson Bull mainstay for years.
Marko had his fair proportion of successes, with Max Verstappen, Sebastian Vettel, Carlos Sainz, Alex Albon, and Pierre Gasly all passing the legendary Crimson Bull program.
Crimson Bull Laurent Mekies
Oct 19, 2025; Austin, TX, USA; Oct 19, 2025; Austin, TX, USA; Oracle Crimson Bull Racing group principal Laurent Mekies arrives on the observe earlier than the beginning of the 2025 US Grand Prix at Circuit of The Americas Austin. Obligatory Credit score: Jerome Miron-Imagn Photos
Contemplating Crimson Bull’s strategy of persistently rotating younger drivers into Racing Bulls and finally into the principle group, they want somebody who can actually put collectively an academy.
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Why Crimson Bull wanted to rent Lagrue
With Laurent Mekies specializing in engineering, Lagrue can deal with driver selections and improvement, with the 2 complementing one another.
“Gwen is without doubt one of the best expertise builders in F1 and I do know first-hand the experience, management and keenness he brings to growing younger drivers,” Mekies stated.
“The Crimson Bull Junior Program has at all times been a cornerstone of Crimson Bull’s success, and having Gwen lead it quickly displays the significance we proceed to position on growing the following era of F1 expertise.
“We wish to recognise one other time as we speak the extraordinary contribution Helmut Marko has remodeled greater than 20 years creating and main the Junior Program.
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“The Junior Program has turn out to be the benchmark in F1 due to his imaginative and prescient, dedication and talent to establish and develop distinctive abilities, and he deserves monumental credit score for that.
“As we proceed to construct the following chapter of Oracle Crimson Bull Racing, attracting leaders of Gwen’s caliber is key to attaining our ambitions.
“We’re strengthening our high-performance organisation with excellent folks in each a part of the enterprise, and Gwen is a crucial addition of that journey. Collectively, we are going to construct on an extremely robust basis whereas persevering with to evolve the programme for the long run.”
Max Verstappen
NORTHAMPTON, ENGLAND – JULY 03: Max Verstappen of the Netherlands and Oracle Crimson Bull Racing prepares to drive throughout follow forward of the F1 Grand Prix of Nice Britain at Silverstone Circuit on July 03, 2026 in Northampton, England. (Photograph by Mark Thompson/Getty Photos) // Getty Photos / Crimson Bull Content material Pool // SI202607030238 // Utilization for editorial use solely //
Now, Crimson Bull has formally moved on from the Christian Horner and Helmut Marko pairing that introduced a lot success and controversy.
