It was a downfall that was rapid, yet simultaneously appeared to be on the cards for a long time.
Christian Horner was under real pressure for his job at the start of last season, and came out fighting. Perhaps the damage had been done then, but even having weathered that particular storm, he was navigating multiple others right up to the announcement on Wednesday that he has been relieved of his operational duties with immediate effect.
The longest-serving team principal on the grid, who had led Red Bull to eight drivers’ championships and six constructors’ titles in 20 full seasons, is gone.
Yet despite being accused of sexual harassment and coercive, controlling behavior by a female employee at the start of 2024, the beginning of the end can perhaps be traced back to October 2022.
It was during that year’s United States Grand Prix weekend that Dietrich Mateschitz – the co-founder and part owner of Red Bull, and founder of the Red Bull Racing team – died, and the balance of power within Red Bull GmbH started to shift. How and where it would settle was not clear, but it trickled down to the F1 team, too.
During a dominant 2023 campaign, there was still unrest. The relationship between Horner and Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko – a close personal friend of Mateschitz – appeared to become strained and there were disagreements, with Marko claiming Horner had taken on more responsibilities.
The situation could potentially have led to the departure of one of the two at the time, but Max Verstappen said the success Red Bull was enjoying proved the importance of stability.
“Everyone is staying in exactly the same role,” Verstappen told Sky Sports. “That has never really been a discussion. It’s very important when you are doing well, and the team are doing very well, that you keep those people that are very important to the success of the team. Everyone knows that.
“From our side, it has always been super clear. I don’t know why people outside the team were trying to doubt that. From our side, it’s always been clear that it has to stay that way.”
It did not stay that way.
Regardless of the catalyst, key personnel started leaving Red Bull the following year. The investigation into Horner’s conduct broke before the season got underway and led to clear tension between the team principal and Jos Verstappen.
Rob Marshall’s departure as chief designer was announced mid-2023, but then chief technical officer Adrian Newey confirmed he would leave in May of 2024, and sporting director Jonathan Wheatley’s move to Sauber was made public three months later. Something that had been clearly described as being very important to Verstappen was not happening, and key staff members were not being kept.
Following the 2022 death of Red Bull founder and co-owner Dietrich Mateschitz (pictured above with Horner in 2015), Red Bull Racing’s leadership began to split into factions. Mark Sutton/Getty Images
Rarely was the disruption at Red Bull acknowledged by those leaving, but Wheatley did admit it could have played some form role in his own departure.
“I can understand why people would look back on what was happening there [at Red Bull] at that time and think that was all part of it,” Wheatley told RACER. “Maybe it was, but not consciously.”
Regardless, from the moment Newey’s intentions had been announced, the on-track performance really tailed off. Verstappen won under pressure in Imola, Canada and Spain, but the slide continued and there have been just four more victories in the 26 races that have followed.
Two at the end of 2024 came as he secured a fourth straight drivers’ title, but the trend was clear and the pressure was on Red Bull to find solutions to its car woes ahead of the final season of the current regulations, because the future looks tough.
With 2026 on the horizon – when Red Bull will deliver its first power unit as a manufacturer – this year has not offered an uptick in form. Verstappen has performed miracles at times in a car that has yielded just seven points across two drivers in the seat alongside him. His personal return of 165, including two victories, is still not enough to keep him in touch with the McLarens, though, and he’s now 69 points off the championship lead.
A title looks hugely unlikely from here, and the expectation is for there to be teething pains in 2026 that could keep Red Bull from contention, too. All of that adds up to a real threat of Verstappen moving on, and the team losing the best driver on the grid.
So it is Horner who has paid the price, despite leading the team in every single race since it entered the sport in 2005. Aged 31 then and 51 now, he has presided over 124 wins that places Red Bull fourth on the all-time winners’ list in the sport.
That’s exactly half the number of victories that Ferrari has, but the Scuderia’s tally of 248 comes from 1109 race starts, compared to 405 for Red Bull.
And Horner had not only overseen a dominant period from 2010 onwards, when Sebastian Vettel became a four-time world champion, but also a dip and then a return to the front with Verstappen, showing he could lead the team through cycles.
The latest cycle, however, has been a negative one, and doesn’t have the the catalyst that 2014 onwards did of new power unit regulations that held Red Bull back. Nor does Horner have a Daniel Ricciardo putting his previous lead driver in the rear-view mirror and suggesting a bright future.
Whether Verstappen is seriously weighing up a move to Mercedes or not, the direction of travel for Red Bull has not been a good one for some time, despite previously holding a dominant position over the field. And Horner’s own position weakened over that period too, even if he appeared to survive each challenge.
His legacy in terms of results and growth of the team is quite remarkable, but it’s hard to argue against the fact that over the past 18 months it felt inevitable that his tenure was coming to an end.
