Mercedes driver scout Lagrue joining Red Bull

Jul 19, 2026 - 17:35

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The Mercedes driver scout involved in discovering Kimi Antonelli is leaving the team to join rivals Red Bull.

Frenchman Gwen Lagrue, 50, is to take up a new role leading Red Bull's driver development programme.

Lagrue has been recruited essentially as a replacement for Helmut Marko, who retired from his long-time role as Red Bull's motorsport adviser at the end of last year.

Red Bull team principal Laurent Mekies and Lagrue himself declined to comment when approached by BBC Sport.

Mercedes initially did the same, but after the Belgian Grand Prix, following the publication of BBC Sport's story, team principal Toto Wolff said: "We're in discussions with Gwen about the future, but nothing's been agreed or decided yet.

"Gwen has built up a fantastic team, we're about seven, eight or nine people that are running the junior programme going forward, with a handful of juniors. With Bradley (Lord) stepping up as a deputy principal, these things need to be carved out now. We want to do it together with Gwen."

It is unclear when Lagrue will be free to take up his new role.

Mercedes and Red Bull are in the process of negotiating an agreement that would see him released from his existing contract as driver development adviser to the Mercedes F1 team.

At Mercedes, his role will likely be filled by a minor reshuffle of the existing young-driver programme, arguably the most effective in F1.

Lord, who was already involved, was recently promoted to deputy team principal from his previous position as communications director and senior adviser to team principal Toto Wolff.

Mercedes have a team of up to 10 people analysing the junior categories, right down to the very junior levels of karting, to find promising new talent.

For Red Bull, it is an important signing, especially after a period in which they have lost a series of top personnel.

In the past two years, chief technical director Adrian Newey has moved to Aston Martin, head of strategy Will Courtenay has moved to McLaren, and current head of racing Gianpiero Lambiase is to move to McLaren no later than 2028.

Red Bull see Lagrue's recruitment as a key part of re-establishing their young driver programme as the pinnacle of its kind.

They see it as proof that they can recruit exceptional people from across the paddock as well as promoting from within to reconstruct the team under Mekies' leadership and return it to the very front of F1.

Lagrue has worked for Mercedes for a decade.

George Russell was the first signing for the team following his appointment, a few months after the Briton famously approached Wolff and gave him a PowerPoint presentation arguing his case to be part of the Mercedes junior programme.

Russell has been supported by Mercedes since then as he completed the junior categories, was seconded to Williams for an F1 debut in 2019 and then promoted to Mercedes in 2022.

Mercedes signed Antonelli when he was an 11-year-old racing in go-karts and he has been mentored by Mercedes through an accelerated programme that saw him replace Lewis Hamilton in the team when the seven-time champion joined Ferrari at the start of 2025.

Antonelli is proving his billing as a generational talent in dominating the F1 world championship in only his second season.

The 19-year-old has won six races in 10 grands prix so far this season, and now leads the drivers' championship by 45 points from Hamilton following the Belgian Grand Prix.

Among other successes at Mercedes while Lagrue has been running the young-driver programme are Frenchman Esteban Ocon, who was their junior driver and has been managed by them through his 10-year career in F1 at Manor, Force India, Renault/Alpine and now Haas, and their current F1 reserve driver, the Dane Frederik Vesti.

Lagrue also personally supported current Williams driver Alex Albon when he was dropped by Marko from Red Bull's driver development programme in 2016.

He helped Albon with career advice and in sourcing budget to further his career until the Anglo-Thai rejoined Red Bull for his F1 debut for the second team, then called Toro Rosso, in 2019.