Christian Horner might have pulled off a Max Verstappen triumph that secures his Red Bull F1 future

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Red Bull Racing never gave an official reason for parting ways with Christian Horner.

The British Grand Prix appeared to be the final straw for Red Bull, with Christian Horner replaced by Laurent Mekies after another disappointing weekend for the Austrian team.

Max Verstappen went into the 2025 F1 season hoping to become only the second driver in the sport’s history to win five consecutive championships.

That looked nearly impossible to achieve at the point Christian Horner left Red Bull, although the Dutchman has since recorded back-to-back wins to put McLaren’s drivers under further pressure.

This started to raise doubts about whether Verstappen wanted to commit his long-term future to Red Bull, with Mercedes and Aston Martin among the teams sniffing around, wondering whether the Dutchman might suddenly be an option in the F1 driver market.

Horner’s relationship with Verstappen’s camp has been tricky to say the least, and while it was never cited as a reason why the 51-year-old departed, Jos Verstappen never hid his concerns about Red Bull’s former team principal being in charge.

However, one decision Horner made before his exit might end up swaying Verstappen to stay at Red Bull for longer, even if things aren’t going as planned on the Formula 1 front.

READ MORE: All to know on sacked Red Bull team principal Christian Horner with net worth

Christian Horner’s Ford power unit decision could convince Max Verstappen to stay at Red Bull

Verstappen entered his first GT3 race last weekend, winning alongside Chris Lulham in his Ferrari 296.

It was another impressive feat to add to his CV, and is unlikely to be his only foray into endurance racing.

Helmut Marko has ruled out Verstappen racing in Le Mans, but further endurance races around the Nurburgring are likely to follow.

Red Bull Powertrains are building their first F1 power unit for the 2026 season and will be partnering with Ford in order to do this.

As journalist Matt Beer explains, that partnership could see Verstappen have access to racing in the premier World Endurance Championship events as early as 2027.

READ MORE: Red Bull driver Max Verstappen’s life outside F1 from net worth to girlfriend

How Ford’s new partnership with Red Bull could be perfect news for Max Verstappen

Describing Ford’s relationship with Red Bull going forward, Beer said: “Beyond 2026, though, we suspect Max is going to be watching the F1 and WEC calendar announcements very closely.

“We mentioned that Red Bull’s about to tie up with Ford in F1. Ford are also about to enter the headline hypercar class of the world endurance championship in 2027, and one of their technical partners in that project is Red Bull Powertrains.

“The Ford hypercar program manager is Dan Sayers, who has moved into that role from being program director at Red Bull Powertrains.

“Ford is running its hypercar program mostly in-house but with support from organisations including RBPT, and its base near Oxford in the UK is not far from Red Bull’s Milton Keynes base.

“Assuming Verstappen does stay at Red Bull deep into its Ford era and things go well enough that he has spare time to have a punt at Le Mans too.

“The Red Bull-Ford relationship is a very logical way to make it all happen. Whether it will be a Le Mans-winning car, though, is much harder to say.

“The WEC field is stacked right now. Ford’s going up against Ferrari, Alpine, Aston Martin, BMW, Cadillac, Peugeot, Porsche, and Toyota with the Hyundai brand Genesis and McLaren on the way too.

“Ford’s on a tight schedule with its hypercar not scheduled for shakedown tests until next summer.

“And the decision to run the program in-house, albeit with high-profile helpers, has raised some eyebrows in the sports car world.”

Verstappen runs his own endurance team and might not need the support from Ford to fulfil his aspirations beyond Formula 1.

However, if he’s impressed by the work they do behind the scenes at Red Bull, then there’s no reason why they can’t achieve their F1 and WEC goals together in the future.