The F1 executive discusses the possible reasons behind Christian Horner's exit from Red Bull and what the future holds for the former team principal.
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What are your thoughts on Christian Horner’s Red Bull exit?
It is a shock and has come out of the blue, and there has been no reason shared with the media by Red Bull as to why they have made that decision and we only know what is in the public domain, but it is a shock. There’s a lot of commentary about it, but most people other than those directly involved don’t know the details so it is a difficult one to understand, unless there is more information forthcoming.
It is strange timing at this stage of the season, do you have any insight as to why Red Bull have made this decision?
The mainstream media are trying to make sense of it and are coming down to two things. One is the team’s current performance and the fact that they are in fourth place in the construction championship, and the second being the apparent uncertainty of Max Verstappen’s future, although he has a long-term contract with Red Bull. That’s the direction of the speculation, but I think, generally speaking, you don’t replace a team principal – and certainly not one that is as successful as Christian has been – mid-season because the track performance isn’t going so well. There have been some issues with a number of second drivers in the car. Liam Lawson and Yuki Tsunoda haven’t really been able to get points-scoring finishes and get qualifying positions out of a car that’s clearly quite difficult to drive, so when you look at that you have to question why that is.
Christian is not the car designer and is not the engineer, but obviously he is responsible for the overall performance of the team. These are not uncommon problems to find in Formula One. I think this is why the focus shifts on to the political side and to the future of Max Verstappen, but clearly Christian Horner was as shocked as anyone at this decision and I think we may never know the reasons. If we do know the reasons, Red Bull will need to come out with a more detailed explanation of why they decided to change their team principle after 21 incredibly successful years.
How good has Christian Horner been in those 21 years?
I was privileged to be part of the team when he joined and I have kept touch with him through that 20-year period, and I think what he’s achieved has been utterly extraordinary for 18 of those years. He had Dietrich Mateschitz as the owner of Red Bull and was very much reporting through to Dietrich, and he was not an easy taskmaster. He’s pretty clear about the fact that if you work for him, you have to deliver. Christian delivered and the measure of success in Formula One is very binary – you win or you lose. The fact is that Red Bull Racing have done an awful lot more winning than losing and over the years, a bad year for Red Bull was a year when they were finished second or third in a Constructors Championship. Their default was to be championship challengers, so it’s been that way right up until now. The thing is, even now when they are having a tougher season, they’ve still won grands prix, albeit only two and Max is third in the championship, which is by no means a disgrace. There’s lots of people who would be delighted to be third in the World Drivers’ Championship at the moment. Clearly there have been other factors that are in the public domain and a number of people have left the team, so we have seen all of that. Nevertheless, the shock and the timing of this is raising a lot of eyebrows.
What was Christian like to work with and what is he like as a person?
Clearly, Christian has always fought his corner very passionately and he doesn’t hold back, whether that’s defending his team from his rivals where he’s come under attack. I think there’s been no secret of that because it’s been in the public domain and arguably it’s been part of the cut and thrust of Formula One’s popularity in recent years on Netflix’s Drive to Survive series. You’ve got very large personalities like Toto Wolf, Zac Brown, Christian Horner, and Christian has emerged with this media perception him as the villain of the piece because it has suited a narrative, which may often not bear any relation to reality.
I’ve always found Christian Horner nothing but polite, receptive, and easy to talk to, but I haven’t worked with him for over 20 years. He’s got no reason to sit down and talk to me, particularly, but he’s always very happy to and he is quite a private guy. Obviously, he is in the limelight because of his job in Formula One but he’s a family man and he clearly has a great relationship with his family, extended family included. Only a week ago, he raised half a million pounds for the Wings for Life charity at the annual clay pigeon shooting day, which he organises and puts on, and that was just before the British Grand Prix.
I think Christian is a far more rounded character and actually quite a straightforward guy to deal with, compared to perhaps what is made out of the media. One of the questions which I think you always have to ask the media is that when they write stories like that, the journalist concerned may cover a particular angle they want to take on the story, and the narrative of having good guys and bad guys is a major old narrative in the world. Ever since Ron Dennis was the boss of McLaren, he used to be painted as a slightly terrifying figure, so team principals are given these headline attributes, whether they are right or not.
Ron Dennis was super successful and so was Christian Horner, so I think he has been very different from how the media make him out and I don’t think the media know him very well. One of the most disturbing aspects of what has happened this week is that a lot of the commentary is based on not knowing the facts, so people speculate, which I fully understand. It’s not just mainstream media but also across social media, and it’s quite noticeable to see with a lot of the content creators and influencers, who are now so important in Formula One, who are making very judgemental comments and views about Christian when they don’t know the facts other than the people directly involved. It’s a very interesting development. If you are interested in looking at a human nature, you really get to see the story as a good example of how the modern mainstream and social media loves heroes and villains. I think we all know there’s a fine line between the two, and one minute you can be the big hero to everyone and the next you can fall very quickly.
It’s a very unforgiving landscape. But I think the one thing that’s for sure, is that Christian Horner has got incredible resilience and broad shoulders and I think that 21 years at Red Bull Racing will position him fairly strongly for a future senior role within Formula One. The thing that will surprise me most is not that he left Red Bull after 21 years. What will surprise me most is if he doesn’t end up with a similarly high-profile role within Formula One before too long. I think it would be a question of ‘watch this space’. He’s a very ambitious guy. He’s young, he’s only 51 years of age, he’s got plenty of mileage, plenty of fuel in the tank and I’m sure that after taking a break, he will come back with a vengeance.
