F1 governing body the FIA is said to have been alerted to the need for a tweak to the rules following Red Bull’s swift replacement of Christian Horner with Laurent Mekies

Laurent Mekies has been very swiftly installed as Red Bull Racing team principal(Image: Getty Images for Oracle Red Bull)

Formula 1 is set to ban immediate staff moves between teams from next year. The change to the regulations in 2026 comes after Red Bull fired team principal and chief executive Christian Horner and immediately announced his replacement, Laurent Mekies.

The Frenchman has been able to step up immediately from the team principal role at sister squad Racing Bulls. As such, he will make his debut in charge of the main Red Bull outfit at this weekend’s Belgian Grand Prix – a seamless transition by Formula 1 standards where staff moves often take an age to go through because of mandated periods of gardening leave.

That is a standard practice in the sport, with teams often forced to wait for months before new signings poached from rivals can actually get to work. For example, Adrian Newey was placed on leave By Red Bull last May after his announcement that he planned to leave, and was unable to begin work with new team Aston Martin until March this year.

But, in this case, Red Bull have benefitted from their ownership of two teams on the grid. If Mekies had been poached by another outfit, then a period of leave would surely have been enforced, but Racing Bulls were able to easily waive that so the Frenchman could get to work straight away at Red Bull Racing.

It is a situation which has caught the eye of F1’s governing body, the FIA. As a result, it is understood the vast changes to the sport’s rulebook ahead of the 2026 season will include a provision which would enforce a mandatory period of leave before a member of staff can move from one team to another.

That change will be part of the ‘Section F’ rules which are set to get a widespread revamp for next year. The FIA is looking to tighten the regulations which focus on multi-team ownership – a victory in particular for McLaren Racing chief executive Zak Brown who has been a vocal critic of Red Bull being allowed to own two teams on the grid.

“It’s an unhealthy situation because it impacts decisions made both on and off the track,” he wrote in an open letter back in December 2023. “Whether it’s a case of having access to more data, sharing components/personnel, or even having influence over a strategic vote, it’s not in the spirit of the regulations. It’s important to stand up for independence, competition and fairness.

“I’d like to see changes in the regulations to ensure that in future, they stop influence spreading from one team to another through strategic alliances and especially through ownership. Formula 1 should be true to its brand, and every team – except power units – should be totally independent of each other.”

While Brown is unlikely to get his wish of a full ban on multi-team ownership any time soon, the new rulebook for the 2026 season is set to include tighter restrictions on how closely outfits can work together. Relationships between teams will continue to be allowed, but FIA single seater director Nikolas Tombazis said: “We are working on clarifying more how teams, let’s call them A- and B-teams, operate in terms of putting in provisions that stops those that have some sort of close relationship from helping each other or collaborating.

“We are putting some provisions on the IT side, to make sure that IT systems are segregated, so they cannot share designs, or anything like that. And there will also be physical segregation and what details of what provisions need to be respected.

“Through the years we’ve got involved at various times with various situations emerging, and we’ve frequently had to give clarifications or responses. We’re trying to formalise some of these things into some regulatory structure, so teams can’t play different games. We also want to satisfy the teams that don’t have any affiliation, that the key teams that do have a relationship of some sort do not gain an unfair advantage.”