Long-serving Red Bull Racing team principal and CEO Christian Horner has been sensationally sacked by the Formula 1 team with immediate effect.
The team confirmed in a statement on Wednesday night Horner had been released “from his operational duties with effect from today”.
Laurent Mekies, the Racing Bulls team principal, will take over as Red Bull Racing chief executive immediately.
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Horner, 51, was involved in a scandal last year in which he was accused of inappropriate workplace behaviour by a female employee. He was exonerated twice in investigations conducted by external lawyers.
The reasons for Horner’s departure are not yet clear.
He denied reports last month that suggested Ferrari had sounded him out to replace the under-pressure Fred Vasseur as team principal, insisting his “commitment 100 per cent is with Red Bull — it always has been and certainly will be for the long term”.
Englishman Horner was Red Bull Racing’s foundation team principal and has been with the team for two decades, overseeing all 124 race victories and six constructors titles.
“We would like to thank Christian Horner for his exceptional work over the last 20 years,” Oliver Mintzlaff, Red Bull CEO of corporate projects and investments, said in a statement.
“With his tireless commitment, experience, expertise and innovative thinking, he has been instrumental in establishing Red Bull Racing as one of the most successful and attractive teams in Formula 1.
“Thank you for everything, Christian, and you will forever remain an important part of our team history.”
Horner’s glittering reign ended in a peter-out, with the team slumping to a shock third in last year’s constructors championship after having dominated in 2023, and this year’s it’s down to a distant fourth on the title table.
While its decline is multifaceted, the team’s inability to build a car for any driver other than Verstappen, around whom the team orbits on a course set by Horner, has been integral to its slide down the order.
Multiple reports surfaced before Horner’s exit was made official, with F1 reporter Erik van Haren from Holland’s De Telegraf reporting staff at the team’s Milton Keynes were informed of the move on Wednesday.
“The bomb has dropped at Red Bull Racing,” van Haren wrote. “Team boss and CEO Christian Horner has been sacked after more than 20 years.”
Horner’s departure comes at an intriguing time for the team as speculation surrounds the future of Max Verstappen, who is contracted until 2028 but has performance-related clauses that could allow him to join another team sooner.
Mercedes boss Toto Wolff has admitted to talks with Verstappen’s management team about making the sensational switch as early as next season, with Sky Sport Italy reporting last week that the matter had made it all the way to the Mercedes board for approval.
Verstappen refused to answer questions about his future at the weekend’s British Grand Prix.
The Dutchman’s uncertain future stems back to the political ructions of last year that saw the four-time champion, Red Bull motorsport adviser Helmut Marko and Mintzlaff grouped in one power faction opposed to Horner and the Thai Yoovidhya family, which owns 51 per cent of the Red Bull brand.
Verstappen threatened to quit the team if Marko was dismissed as part of what appeared to be an episode of political blood-letting. Marko was retained, and the tensions were smoothed over.
But the Dutchman’s father, Jos, has publicly kept up the niggle. After having called for Horner’s head early last year, he has since constantly talked up the tension inside the team and kept speculation bubbling that his son could be poised to quit the team.
Red Bull Racing lost several important and high-profile members of staff in the fallout, including design guru Adrian Newey, who has since joined Aston Martin, and sporting director Jonathan Wheatley, who is now the Sauber/Audi team principal. Chief strategist Will Courtenay will start at McLaren next season.
Verstappen’s fourth title appeared to be enough for an uneasy truce to hold between the team’s most important powerbrokers, but Horner’s dismissal will now be seen as a win for the Dutch faction.
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Horner was the longest serving team principal in the paddock, having led Red Bull Racing since its inception in 2005, following the Austrian energy drinks giant’s takeover of the Jaguar team.
Billed as a disrupter team, Horner’s first big move was to poach famed designer Adrian Newey from McLaren.
Newey started work in 2006, and by 2007 the team had moved from seventh to fifth in the constructors championship. In 2008 Toro Rosso, using what was effectively that year’s Red Bull Racing car, won the Red Bull brand’s first race when Sebastian Vettel claimed victory at the Italian Grand Prix.
The team had grown in strength in time to capitalise on the sweeping regulation changes of 2009. Vettel, then with the senior team, took Red Bull Racing’s first pole and victory at that year’s Chinese Grand Prix on the way to second on the drivers and constructors title tables behind fairytale champions Brawn and Jenson Button.
Glory would come the following season, when Vettel and Red Bull Racing claimed the first of four successive title doubles.
RBR entered a period of competitive wilderness with the introduction of the turbo-hybrid power unit in 2014 thank to engine supplier Renault’s difficulty mastering the new formula.
It took a switch to Honda power in 2019 to begin the revival of the team’s fortunes, and by 2021, the final year of the prevalent rule set, Red Bull Racing powered Verstappen to his first championship in a tense duel with Lewis Hamilton.
Horner became a protagonist in that controversial season for his frequent public interventions — including against a marshal at that year’s Qatar Grand Prix, for which he was punished by the FIA — and particularly for his regular criticism of Mercedes boss Toto Wolff.
Though having always enjoyed a high profile in Formula 1, his notoriety was turbocharged by Drive to Survive, in which he has been a fixture since its release in 2019 and especially since 2021.
On his watch the team has gone on to win two dominant driver-constructor title doubles with Verstappen, with the Dutchman claiming a fourth drivers title last season.
The team’s 2023 campaign was the most one-sided in Formula 1 history on several metrics, including most wins in a season (22), highest percentage wins in a season (95.5 per cent) and most consecutive victories in a season (14).
But while Verstappen won last year’s drivers title at a canter, the team has been in decline as McLaren has ascended to the top of the sport. It finished third in last year’s constructors championship, and today it sits fourth on the title table.
Red Bull Racing has scored 124 wins with Horner at the helm — a strike rate of 30.6 per cent, putting it behind only Mercedes among teams to have entered 30 races or more — along with 14 drivers and constructors championship.