Racing
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Former Haas team principal Guenther Steiner said Red Bull has made the right long-term move by signing Mercedes talent developer Gwen Lagrue to run its junior programme from 2027, calling him the right man to carry on the structure built under Helmut Marko.
Red Bull confirmed Lagrue will join as director of its junior programme after Marko’s departure at the end of 2025, answering questions about who would protect one of Formula 1’s most influential driver pipelines. Steiner said the significance of the move was not just in replacing Marko’s role in talent development, but in taking a figure from Mercedes who had already built a reputation as one of the paddock’s leading talent spotters.
Speaking on The Red Flags Podcast, Steiner said he was surprised Mercedes had allowed Lagrue to leave. “I was quite surprised that he's leaving Mercedes,” Steiner said. “They must have made him a very good offer because he's very close to the guys [there].”
Lagrue spent more than a decade at Mercedes, where Steiner said he was co-responsible for the development of George Russell and Kimi Antonelli. Steiner argued that Lagrue’s strength is not only identifying young drivers, but understanding the wider feeder-series landscape better than almost anyone else in the sport.
“I think he's [great at] spotting talent and knowing what's going on in all the series,” Steiner said. “Gwen has been doing it longer than anybody else. Therefore, he has got that advantage, and he knows what he's looking for. So absolutely, that was a very good hire by Laurent [Mekies] to get Gwen there for the future.”
That future matters to Red Bull because its junior programme has been one of the most productive in F1, producing drivers including Max Verstappen, Carlos Sainz, Alex Albon, Pierre Gasly, Yuki Tsunoda, Liam Lawson, Isack Hadjar and Arvid Lindblad. By bringing in Lagrue, Red Bull is trying to make sure that pipeline survives Marko’s exit and remains a competitive advantage in the years ahead.