How Christian Horner’s Red Bull exit mirrored his F1 arrival and why he will be missed

From day one at Red Bull Christian Horner was fully aware of the ruthlessness in F1. So perhaps Wednesday’s announcement that he was being “released from his operational duties” shouldn’t have come as such a bolt from the blue.

When we spoke during the writing of Growing Wings: The Inside Story of Red Bull Racing, Horner recounted how he was asked to wait in the car park while Red Bull’s legal team dismissed the team’s original principal, Tony Purnell.

Purnell had also explained how he and managing director Dave Pitchforth were working on the 2005 car when tensions began to rise between the Milton Keynes factory and Red Bull HQ in Salzburg - a story that sounds all too familiar today.

“When Red Bull took over, we were delighted,” Purnell said. “It felt like the future of the team, which had been weighing heavily. They invited me to continue as team principal. But Red Bull were a marketing company - an excellent one - but at that time, they knew nothing about engineering or building a race car. They didn’t understand how to run an F1 team.

“We hit stress points quickly. One was over drivers. They wanted to install some we didn’t think were good enough. But the bigger issue was their crazy ideas about how to build a car.”

He added that Red Bull pushed for personnel changes he found unacceptable. “Dave was the best technical manager I’d ever worked with. He would later become President of Boeing Defence. But [Helmut] Marko didn’t like him because he always pushed back when he thought an action was wrong or badly handled. Red Bull asked me to fire him, which I said was completely out of the question.

2004 Formula One Testing Barcelona, Spain. 25th November 2004. Red Bull boss Dietrich Mateschitz and team manager Tony Purnell, chat by the side of the RB1, portrait. World Copyright: LAT Photographic ref: Digital Image Only

“But they didn’t believe in us. The relationship was broken. They gave no warning that we were about to be fired. It was a shock to turn up and find Marko and a team of lawyers at the desk.”

This week in Milton Keynes the similarities are striking and comes on the heels of two disappointing ‘home’ races for the team at the Red Bull Ring and Silverstone.

Horner was appointed Red Bull team principal on 7 January, 2005, at just 31 years old and became the youngest F1 team boss in history at the time. As part of our interview for the Growing Wings book, he reflected on that first day. “I was sitting in the car park and saw them come out with a cardboard box with their stuff in. I thought to myself, ‘F1 is pretty brutal,’” he said.

Now, just over 20 years later, Horner finds himself in the same position - unceremoniously ousted, with little to no warning. The difference, of course, is the legacy he leaves behind. Under his stewardship, the team won 124 of the 405 races it entered. Horner was present at every single one.

He still has a contract with Red Bull that runs until the end of 2030 and only last week, he invited media for a roundtable interview ahead of a fundraising event for Wings for Life, the spinal cord research charity co-founded by motocross world champion Heinz Kinigadner and Red Bull’s late co-founder, Dietrich Mateschitz. Had his dismissal been imminent, it’s unlikely such an event - with Red Bull dignitaries in attendance - would have taken place.

Horner had always stayed loyal to Mateschitz, and it was ultimately the Austrian’s death in 2022 that triggered the internal power struggle and the erosion of Horner’s relationship with Red Bull HQ. As with Purnell, the Milton Keynes factory was increasingly isolated from Salzburg.

It all came to a head in early 2024 with an internal investigation following a complaint of inappropriate behaviour by a female employee. The legal dispute dragged on, but Horner insisted it was business as usual. In the months that followed, the accusations were dismissed twice. It seemed he had weathered the storm - thanks in no small part to the backing of the Yoovidhya family, especially Chalerm Yoovidhya, who owns 51% of Red Bull. The Mateschitz family holds the remaining 49% through Dietrich’s son, Mark.

Businessman Chalerm Yoovidhya, Christian Horner, Team Principal, Red Bull Racing

Still, the political tension between Milton Keynes and Salzburg intensified. The fallout coincided with an exodus of key personnel; chief designer Adrian Newey departed for Aston Martin, Jonathan Wheatley left to join Audi, Max Verstappen’s chief mechanic Lee Stevenson moved on, and head of strategy Will Courtenay joined McLaren - reuniting with former Red Bull engineering chief Rob Marshall at the Woking-based team.

Despite these departures, Horner insisted the team would adapt, that he was the right person to lead them through the transition. But with leadership comes accountability. If you take credit for success, you must also take responsibility when things go wrong.

That’s why Verstappen’s victory in Imola felt so meaningful, it was a sigh of relief for Horner, a signal that the team was still in contention. But a poor result in Spain, a DNF in Austria, and an underwhelming British GP - despite Verstappen taking a brilliant pole - were not enough to save him.

Red Bull’s decision to replace Horner with Laurent Mekies opens the door to speculation as to its motive. Was it a move to placate Verstappen and dissuade him from defecting to Aston Martin or Mercedes? Or was it Austria reasserting control, wary that Horner, who had become CEO as well as team principal, held too much power? The truth likely lies somewhere in between.

The timing is pivotal. F1 is on the cusp of its most significant regulation change in its history, while Red Bull is also preparing to partner with Ford as its engine supplier from 2026 - it is a seismic moment that had Horner at the centre.

Mekies is by all accounts a successful engineer with prior roles at Arrows, Minardi/Toro Rosso, Ferrari and the FIA. But is he the right person to lead Red Bull into this new era? This writer has reservations.

Who is Red Bull F1 team's new CEO Laurent Mekies?

Laurent Mekies, Team Principal, Racing Bulls

As for Horner, he still has that long contract, which will demand hefty compensation to break. He’s a workaholic, so perhaps for now he’ll focus on family, take a holiday, and temporarily step away.

But he’ll be back. His exit will have stung, and he’ll be determined to prove a point. His inability to tell his side of the story - apart from a weak official statement delivered to the TV cameras plus a social media post on his own account - will grate. At 51, he still has an incredible lot to offer any team in the paddock.

Will he oversee Ferrari’s restructuring? Or take an ownership and leadership role at Alpine? Both are plausible. But for now, F1 has lost a key protagonist.

Fans of Drive to Survive will know the version of Horner cast as a Machiavellian operator, the perfect F1 supervillain; someone who sparred with Mercedes’ Toto Wolff and wound up McLaren’s Zak Brown. Like him or not, the bigger picture is that his departure means that F1 has lost a character, temporarily at least.

Christian Horner admits Red Bull exit "came as a shock" in farewell speech to staff

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