Christian Horner exits Red Bull - reaction + analysis with Alex Jacques

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1:43Hello and welcome to F1 Nation. I'm Tom Clarkson and the big news in Formula One today is that Christian Horner is no longer team principal and CEO of Red Bull Racing. Red Bull said in a statement they have released Christian Horner from his operational duties with effect from today, Wednesday, the 9th of July, 2025, and has appointed Laurent Mekiez as CEO of Red Bull Racing. Oliver Minslav, CEO of Corporate Projects and Investments, said, We would like to thank Christian Horner for his exceptional work over the last 20 years. With his tireless commitment, experience, expertise and innovative thinking, he's been instrumental in establishing Red Bull Racing as one of the most successful and attractive teams in Formula One.

2:31Thank you for everything, Christian, and you will forever remain an important part of our team's history. That's what Red Bull Racing have said today, confirming that Horner is no longer CEO and team principal. He'd been with Red Bull Racing for 20 years, since the team's first season in Formula 1 back in 2005. He led them to eight Drivers' Championships with Sebastian Vettel and Max Verstappen. And the team won six Constructors' Championships, as well as 124 race wins from 405 Grands Prix. There were allegations of inappropriate behaviour made against Christian Horner at the start of last season.

3:10He denied those allegations and he was twice cleared of those claims by the team's parent company. So one of the longest serving team principals in Formula One is no longer a team principal. I'm joined now by F1 TV's lead commentator Alex Jakes. Alex, thank you for your time. What are your thoughts? This is big news in Formula One, isn't it? Doesn't get much bigger, Tom. A team principal who's been in place for two decades is rare. for that team principal to leave not with a end of season celebration, but halfway through the campaign with a statement that says, with immediate effect, it is a bombshell announcement that there was no hint of in the paddock at the British Grand Prix.

3:57But there has been hints of earlier in the season that his position was not as secure as it has been in that winning run that you listed over the last two decades. let's discuss the run-up to this because i think for some people it isn't so much of a surprise when you look at the bare facts let's start with driver choices and a bit of a brain drain from the team as well talk us through that so that's the exact thing i have written down on my notepad tom brain drain it began with rob marshall who is now the lead designer at mclaren we know what McLaren are doing and then the key name the the emblem of their success the man who guided them to all but four wins Adrian Newey he goes out of the door the man who effectively ran the team day by day Jonathan Wheatley he leaves they've lost key mechanics they've lost head of strategy they've lost drivers after two races it has been a huge amount of not just talent but long-term talent talent that's embedded with the team talent that had their people underneath them people running departments to top levels that have left over the the last two years and as a result their on-track performance has quite clearly suffered it feels like a team in transition because of everything you've just said and is this the big boss is just saying do you know what we're gonna completely turn the page and have a new boss at the top of the team as well Yeah, as we're celebrating 75 years of Formula One, a lot has changed in that time.

5:37One thing has remained true. If you don't get results, you're at risk. It's as simple as that. And Red Bull have gone in 2023, winning all but one Grand Prix race to finding themselves struggling enormously, taking gambles with setups, going for high speed at Silverstone, hoping it's dry only to find out it's wet. That is not the mark of a team that has the package to compete with one of the greatest drivers to ever compete in Formula One. That's Max Verstappen. That's a team grasping. When Christian Horner called it a cup final, Max Verstappen is not interested in cup finals. He's interested in winning every single week and winning championships and competing at the front of the field.

6:19Red Bull just haven't done that enough. If you don't do that enough in Formula One, you are at risk, even if you've been in charge for 20 years. and it's worth placing it into context as well Tom. Now that Christian Horner has gone, longest serving team principal is Toto Wolff, CEO and team principal at Mercedes. He joined in 2014. Everyone else as of today has been at their team since the start of the 2023 season or sooner. As a result you've got team principals actively trying to shape their teams in their image with their ethos it means that people are trying to poach even more talent at red bull and turning the page is the phrase i would use red bull feel that they can't go on like this and they need something they need new blood what do you make of the driver choices that have been made at red bull recently i mean let's start with this time last year at a little bit earlier actually when they re-signed sergio perez only to then sack him six months later and then everything that's happen this year just just give us a chronology of that i'll take you back to my notes shall i because underneath brain drain it says second car fast and it might seem harsh but if you consider the the genius that red bull once displayed when helmet marker was bold enough to promote a teenager into the sport that he beat mercedes to the signature of maxelstappen by going we don't just think he's ready for the junior championships we think he's ready for formula one and we're put him in the junior team that caused consternation it's a massive risk for the brand for the reputation of the people involved obviously it worked obviously they got a generational talent when they did that Red Bull were a sporting organization with the racing team that brought junior talent through and knew when to let them go sometimes incredibly harshly but they didn't put the wrong driver in the wrong car as consistently as they have with the second car you do not sign someone to a new contract and then it's not just that they sacked him months later Tom with Sergio Perez it's that they were saying they were worried about his performance a race after they'd announced it when contracts don't matter immediately I know it's Formula One I know contracts don't really matter that much but when they don't matter immediately you're you're entering incredible territory and that continued when he left the smart money the experience money was to put yuki snota in the car to give him that season of preparation all the test days in bahrain they didn't do it they put it all on the shoulders of a driver that didn't have a full campaign in in liam lawson and they'd and then they'd argued about where to deploy liam lawson they'd argued about whether to bring back daniel ricardo consistently one vote for one vote against the power structure was not all rowing in the right direction and eventually that leads you to a place where you have to get rid of a driver after two races you have to bring someone else in neither one of them can get a tune out of the car so you've got inexperienced driver medium experienced driver tire whisperer and proven podium finisher Sergio Perez no one can get the second car to work which means they've got a one car team which means if Max Verstappen has a bad day, Red Bull have a bad day, and all of that added together was becoming untenable.

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10:57How big a hole have Red Bull got to fill? because Horner was, we've already said, CEO and team principal. And he was the spokesperson, the only spokesperson outside of the drivers for the team. That's been consistent over 20 years, whereas you've seen in other teams, they're pushing other people forward to be spokespeople as well. Do you think Red Bull are going to revisit how they structure the top of the team? We're seeing the team principal and the CEO roles split in so many teams. Just look at the success McLaren are having at the moment with Zac Brown in one role and Andrea Stella in the other role.

11:39Do you think there's any chance that we might see Red Bull do that going forward? Entirely. You have to modernise, otherwise you get left behind. And they've been left behind in a competitive pitch. It's not just that they're not competitive, Tom. It's that they've crumbled from a position of dominance to fourth in the Constructors' Championship. in in less than two years and they've gone from they've gone from having access to brilliant engineering brilliant designers uh brilliant team operator so many talented mechanics their head of strategy when they all choose to leave it's time for a it's time for a modernization of your of your organization it's clearly the uh idea that they've mentioned and when everyone else is doing that modernizing when everyone else has been doing that modernizing in the last two years you are as an organization forced to react or accept being in the middle of the pack well let's look at what we know laurent mechiez who was team principal of racing bulls is now coming across to be ceo of red bull racing specifically just ceo what do we know of laurent well he's had an extraordinary career trajectory because i can't think of many deputies at ferrari who bounced to being a team principal at another Italian team that bounced to being in charge of the CEO of the senior team.

12:57Very well respected, got loads of experience. And I think more than that has had aspirations for a job like this for a long time. He was hurt when Ferrari didn't look to him. He deliberately left seeking a role like this. He's had a run at team principal and now he's got the big job at a huge team, a hugely successful team. Think of recent Formula One history it's been Mercedes and Red Bull that's what it's been McLaren obviously in on the act now but it's a it's a huge team to lead and it's what he's wanted so yeah a big task ahead of him but that's what he's been chasing for the last couple of years and what does he bring to the team I mean he's an engineer by trade knowledge and know-how of big structures and how you need to get different departments to work together to reach the front.

13:47He's seen both chaos and success. He's seen it at Ferrari. He's seen why his Ferrari works. They've had some good runs. They've had some bad runs. He's viewed how it shouldn't be done. And I think what has driven his ambition to be the main man is because he believes he knows how to articulate those ideas into consistent race winning performance and he will have been loving the job that racing bulls have done this year outperforming red bull racing regularly i actually think if you do the maths and just look at where red bull racing would be without max verstappen this year you know he's won two races had four pole positions but without max and if you just look at the position of the second car in all of the 12 races we've had so far red bull would be last in the constructors championship that is incredible isn't it you obviously have to say that the car would be designed slightly differently in that chasing performance they have based everything around max verstappen's god-given ability behind the wheel that has made the second car nearly impossible to drive but even so that is a incredible stat for a team that had a car that for so long i mean we're talking about christian Horner in the context of the 20 years.

15:05Mark Webber seemed to win plenty of races and be in contention for plenty of races and what was nominally called the second car. That is a new phenomenon for them but ultimately Tom an untenable phenomenon. You cannot have a one car team in Formula One. Well the knock-on effect of Mechies stepping up from racing balls to Red Bull racing is that of course racing balls are now looking for a new team principal. They've already decided who that is. It is Alan Permain, who was prior to joining that team, was a lifer at Team Endstone in its various guises. His tenure there came to an end almost a couple of years ago, exactly.

15:48And he'll be loving the opportunities that are being presented to him by Red Bull and Racing Bulls. He will. It's not a massive stretch for him to operate at the head of a team, is it? He's essentially been in a role very, very close to that seat for a number of years. You mentioned his experience at Enstone. It's a really nice thing that you can do when you speak to a former driver of that team, no matter what they were known by. You bring up Alan Perman and they give you a look because he's an operator who exacted standards and would be very, very intense if he didn't get them. He knows how to make a Formula One team work.

16:23and I'm a little bit surprised that he didn't seek out an opportunity like this for himself sooner, if I'm honest. He seemed to be a team principal in waiting for a while. So let's quickly throw it forward to 2026 and what Mechies as CEO of Red Bull Racing has got coming his way. Of course, we've got the big regulation change coming next year. Red Bull Powertrains is coming on stream. completely new power unit manufacturer with Ford influence as well. I thought Christian Horner said something very interesting at Silverstone in the press conference when he said it would be, and I'm quoting him now, embarrassing for Mercedes if we were better than them next year.

17:07I wonder how that quote went down in Red Bull GmbH when they've invested hundreds of millions of euros into Red Bull powertrains. yeah quite i thought exactly the same thing tom if you make the call as team leadership that you're going to do your own formula one power unit and everyone who's been around a formula paddock for a long time knows that is a big shout to make it's a big shout to make even when you're operating it with honda's help that they are now it's another thing entirely when you're building it from scratch and ford is your partner ford this proud brand are going to expect results you cannot be miles off you cannot start laying expectations that you're going to be miles off for the amount of money invested if you say we'll do it ourselves and then you're like well we'll do it ourselves but we won't be near mercedes that is going to anger those further up the tree well jake see it's been a seismic day in the news cycle of formula one thank you very much for your time giving us your thoughts you are welcome uh two week break what two weeks break i knew i knew it when I look to that calendar something's gonna happen all right Jason thanks so much and look forward to seeing you at Spur for more on this story please go to f1.com and the f1 app but for now thank you for listening f1 nation is produced by formula one and audio boom studio

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