Hubristic Christian Horner caused Red Bull to rot. No tears for the man who had it coming

The Red Bull team principal’s days were numbered once the poison created by his hubris started to affect the bottom line – results.

Once Red Bull stopped winning races, the team’s two ownership groups could quickly agree: Christian Horner's time was done.

Red Bull could have sacked Christian Horner from his position as team principal 17 months ago, and very nearly did. That was when the accusations against him of inappropriate behaviour exploded into the public domain. It says a lot about Formula One that you can survive sexual harassment charges and a public relations scandal, but five months’ poor performance on the track and it is “sorry, you’re out”.

This is a business where the winning of races is a priority that towers above all else. Given the poor workplace culture the FIA, the international motorsport federation, operates, it was maybe understandable that Red Bull followed its lead and decided just to battle on regardless.

Lose a few races, though, and the picture quickly changes. It is the results for which you are accountable.

And let not a tear be shed, of course, because this is great news in F1, where the greater the victory or the defeat, the more upsetting the human grief, the more damaging the interpersonal psychodrama – it can all be monetised. Christian Horner is finally gone: just imagine the Drive to Survive episode we’re going to get at the end of it.

Yet everything is connected. Horner has gone seemingly because his owners preferred it when their car was winning. Some of them did not much like it when they became an international PR embarrassment back in Bahrain 17 months ago. But then Max Verstappen won that weekend, and he did so again in Saudi Arabia a week later, and soon it was OK to feel that that was what really counted.

Geri Halliwell and husband Christian Horner attend the world premiere of F1. Picture: Angela Weiss/AFP

Yet Horner would not be leaving if it were not for Bahrain. Bahrain, at the start of last year’s season, was when the accusation of sexual harassment against him was at its most intense. He was later cleared of the claims, twice, and if you wished to interpret it in a certain way, you could see in him a great survivor, the leader with the rhino hide who could not be hurt.

Behind the scenes, though, was a different reality. Red Bull was internally intensely disputatious.

As Horner sought to smooth the surface, Jos Verstappen, father of Max, lobbed his own, apparently controversial, interpretation of events into the pool. “The team is in danger of being torn apart,” he said. “It can’t go on the way it is. It will explode. He (Horner) is playing the victim, when he is the one causing the problems.”

We are now nearly a year and a half on and we see that Verstappen Sr was speaking like a prophet.

Inside Red Bull, Horner had been increasingly promoting himself as the man with the Midas touch. This marginalised, in particular, Adrian Newey, the genius designer behind the success of Verstappen’s car.

The scandal that broke last year, however, made Newey feel he was in an untenable position. He felt a loyalty and duty of care towards the employee who had made the complaints against Horner.

The following April, Newey thus became the first domino to fall. His resignation and the news of his pending departure for Aston Martin was a massive blow.

Horner and Verstappen winning the Formula One Belgian Grand Prix in July 2023. Picture: Simon Wohlfahrt/AFP

The Horner story, here, is one of hubris. Some have described Newey as the greatest engineer in F1 history; Horner just batted that away with the misguided assertion that he was on top of it all: farewell, Adrian, but we’ll be fine.

Next out was Jonathan Wheatley, the Red Bull sporting director. He resigned in August and was with Audi for the new season. Rob Marshall, the chief engineering officer, had gone at the start of the year. The dominoes had started to fall. We’ll be OK, said Horner, defiantly.

While there can be no doubt about Horner being the most influential player in Red Bull’s two spells of sustained success, just as he was responsible for putting the team together that drove it to the top, he was equally culpable for the team falling apart. It was once that poison started infecting results that his days became numbered.

The ownership of Red Bull GmbH is split between Austrian and Thai families. While Horner and the internal employment disputes were a noisy sideshow, the two sides could never quite agree on how to manage him and whether to keep him in his role.

Once Red Bull stopped winning races, though, they could quickly agree. His time was done.

Verstappen and Horner celebrate the drivers’ world championship after winning the Formula One Abu Dhabi Grand Prix in 2021. Picture: AP Photo. Kamran Jebreili

The timing here tells another part of the story. Horner is the man who built the Red Bull F1 team and guided two drivers to eight world championship titles. Verstappen has just won four in a row, the last of which was only last year.

With a record like that, you might have thought Horner would have bought himself some time; that, with this year’s disappointing performances following all that success, he’d be given the chance to try to set things right again.

But no. The owners gave him only four months. They got rid of him at the first opportunity, and that says as much about the employers as the man they sacked.

The Times

Originally published as Hubristic Christian Horner caused Red Bull to rot. No tears for the man who had it coming