Red Bull Sack Horner

Massive news from F1 today with the announcement of the sacking of Christian Horner. Horner has been at the helm of Red Bull since they entered F1 as their own team back in 2005. Under his leadership they have become one of the most successful teams in Formula One history and he has led the team to 14 World Championships (Drivers and Constructors).

The announcement comes after a turbulent 12-18 months for Red Bull and Horner; they have lost some high-profile team members and then the allegations of misconduct against Horner. That combined with the struggles they have had with the car. Despite Verstappen winning the Drivers’ Championship they have only won one race this season and last season in the second half of the season they won two races after winning 7 of the first 10 races.

Along with the changes and car troubles, they have had issues with Jos Verstappen. Last year he claimed that unless Horner left the Red Bull team would flounder. To me this whole affair reeks of the Verstappen’s.

Horner’s position has been slightly more uncertain after Dietrich Mateschitz passed away. He was a big friend and supporter of Horner and ever since it has left a void where a power struggle has continued to rumble away. The Verstappen’s are clearly close with Helmut Marko and we know Horner had a falling out with him last year which has been leading up to this event. My theory is they have given an ultimatum, Max leaves or Horner leaves. If this is the case it’s an absolute sad state of affairs that a driver and his father have such a say in how the team is ran. No one should be bigger than the team.

It’s controversial to say but I personally quite like Horner, he has always protected the interests of the team first and foremost even in the most difficult of times and I genuinely can’t remember a time of Formula One without him. He always speaks well to the camera and out of all the team principles seems to be one of the more open and approachable. People will say that he would likely have preferred to go on his own terms, however with his clear love for the team, he was never going to walk away willingly. It is a shame for someone that has helped the team and drivers achieve so much, that this is the way that his time at Red Bull has to end.

This will obviously hurt Horner, at the moment it is unclear if all his ties with Red Bull are done or not. I think he will take some time out of F1, but I do think we will see him back in the future.

I also think, contrary to popular opinion that this is confirmation that Max will not be leaving Red Bull for Mercedes.