The man who put an 11-year-old Kimi Antonelli under contract at Mercedes is going to work for Red Bull.
Gwen Lagrue spent a decade running the Mercedes junior programme. Both of Brackley's current race drivers came through it: George Russell, and the 19-year-old who now leads the drivers' championship on 219 points in his second season. Mercedes confirmed Lagrue's departure last month without naming his destination. It is understood to be Milton Keynes, and the role is the one Helmut Marko vacated at the end of last season.
Guenther Steiner did not hedge on what that is worth. Speaking on The Red Flags Podcast, the former Haas team principal said: "I was quite surprised that he's leaving Mercedes. They [Red Bull] must have made him a very good offer because he's very close to the guys [there]."
Steiner's case for Lagrue is about tenure rather than any single signing. "I think he's [great at] spotting talent and knowing what's going on in all the series. Gwen has been doing it longer than anybody else," he said. "Therefore, he has got that advantage, and he knows what he's looking for. So absolutely, that was a very good hire by Laurent to get Gwen there for the future."
That last clause matters. Laurent Mekies inherited a Red Bull junior structure that had been built around one man's instincts for two decades, and inherited it at the exact moment the senior team stopped being able to offer a race-winning car as the prize. Guillaume Rocquelin, running the Red Bull Driver Academy since 2022, had been the obvious internal successor to Marko. Hiring Lagrue over him is a statement about how far outside the family Red Bull is now willing to look.
Mercedes' public goodbye was warmer than these things usually are. "Thank you Gwen. It's been a great ride together," the team posted. "Together, we've developed many young drivers, including our current F1 drivers George and Kimi, and you've made a fantastic contribution. We have built a true successor to the original Mercedes-Benz junior team, and you leave in place a talented group to carry on this work."
Toto Wolff had been rather less resigned about it a few weeks earlier. Asked at the Belgian Grand Prix about the rumours, the Mercedes boss framed it as an open negotiation rather than a departure. "We're in discussions with Gwen about the future, but nothing's been agreed or decided yet," Wolff said.
He also made clear he does not regard the programme as one person's property. "Gwen has built up a fantastic team," Wolff said. "We have about seven, eight or nine people running the junior programme going forward, along with a handful of juniors, and with Bradley [Lord] stepping up as deputy team principal. These things need to be worked out now. We want to do it together with Gwen, and then we'll see."
The two positions are not quite in conflict, but they are pulling opposite ways. Steiner's read is that Red Bull bought something scarce and paid over the odds to get it. Wolff's is that Mercedes built a system, not a genius, and that the system survives the man leaving. Both cannot be fully right.
There is no confirmed start date, and neither party has issued a formal announcement. Whenever Lagrue does arrive, the in-tray is unusually full: Arvid Lindblad's first full season, an unresolved Racing Bulls line-up, and a senior seat next to Max Verstappen that nobody has held comfortably since Daniel Ricciardo. Marko filled it by conviction. Lagrue will be judged on whether a decade of Mercedes method travels.
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*Originally published on [NewsFormula One](https://newsformula.one/article/red-bull-hires-the-man-who-found-antonelli-as-markos-successor). Visit for full coverage.*