
MPH: To the man trying to fill Christian Horner's shoes: good luck!
Laurent Mekies arrives as Red Bull F1 team principal with a series of immediate challenges to solve and long-term issues to tackle. He'll either sink or swim, says Mark Hughes
Rob Smedley is the man responsible for making Formula 1 more accessible: his current role with the sport’s promoters involves making technical information clearer to fans, as part of efforts to make F1 more understandable — and more interesting.
He’s a man who has lived through interesting times: in the latest podcast, Smedley recalls encountering a “baby” Fernando Alonso in an F3000 test, and becoming his race engineer, before moving to Formula 1 where he worked for the “utter lunatic” Eddie Jordan. Smedley moved to Ferrari where he was race engineer to Felipe Massa, helping the Brazilian to cope as team-mate to Michael Schumacher and then to get within a whisker of the F1 world championship.
Smedley describes how he became front-page news thanks to the famous “Fernando is faster than you” radio call, and gives his thoughts on how Williams can improve, following his stint at the team as head of vehicle performance.
Laurent Mekies arrives as Red Bull F1 team principal with a series of immediate challenges to solve and long-term issues to tackle. He'll either sink or swim, says Mark Hughes
Former McLaren F1 team-mates Mika Häkkinen and David Coulthard are set to renew old rivalries in a new Evening with... tour – they told James Elson all about it
In Formula 1, driver contracts may look iron-clad on paper, but history shows that some of its biggest stars have made dramatic early exits
Former McLaren F1 ace told James Elson about his private audience with The Beatles' George Harrison, who played an unreleased grand prix-themed song