The Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 team has confirmed that driver development advisor Gwen Lagrue is leaving the team after 10 years.
Lagrue will be joining Mercedes rival Oracle Red Bull Racing to head its highly coveted junior programme, following the retirement of veteran Helmut Marko at the end of 2025.
Having been a mainstay in the F1 paddock since 2009, Lagrue first helped set up Renault’s driver development programme.
He was later approached by Mercedes Chief Executive Officer and Team Principal Toto Wolff in 2015 to lead the Mercedes junior driver team, where he played a key role in discovering their current lineup of Andrea Kimi Antonelli and George Russell, and third driver Frederik Vesti.
Both would later make the jump from the junior team to F1 under his guidance and ultimately became multiple Grand Prix winners.
The Atlassian Williams F1 Team driver Alex Albon and TGR Haas F1 Team driver Esteban Ocon can also be counted as one of Lagrue’s proteges, having both been scouted during their karting years along with Russell and Antonelli.
Most recently, Lagrue was instrumental in managing female talent Doriane Pin in both her GT and single-seater career with Mercedes.
She recently won the F1 Academy title in 2025 and became the first female driver to test a modern Mercedes F1 car earlier this year, having driven Lewis Hamilton’s 2021-spec Mercedes W12 at Silverstone.
Mercedes currently has nine drivers signed to its 2026 junior programme, including Rashid Al Dhaheri, Ethan Jeff-Hall, Andy Consani, Luna Fluxa, Kenzo Craigie, James Anagnostiadis, Many Nuvolini, Devin Titz, Niccolò Perico.
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
Wolff paid tribute to Lagrue, who defined their current and future driver pipeline.
“Thank you, Gwen. It’s been a great ride together,” said Wolff.
“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.”
Lagrue’s new role at Red Bull will start in 2027, joining the team’s leadership and reporting directly to team principal Laurent Mekies.
“Gwen is one of the very best talent developers in F1, and I know first-hand the expertise, leadership and passion he brings to developing young drivers,” said Mekies.
“The Red Bull junior programme has always been a cornerstone of Red Bull’s success, and having Gwen lead it soon reflects the importance we continue to place on developing the next generation of F1 talent.”
