Christian Horner once made a ‘stupid bet’ with Martin Brundle and David Coulthard, he never made that mistake again

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Red Bull have come a long way over the last 20 years on their way to becoming one of the most dominant teams in Formula 1 history.

Max Verstappen has just won four consecutive drivers’ championships for them and completed one of the strongest overall seasons in history in 2023.

Since then, Red Bull have been on a bit of a decline and are currently involved in a second driver fiasco with Yuki Tsunoda set to replace Liam Lawson.

Team boss Christian Horner faces some tough decisions ahead of the 2026 F1 regulations if he wants the Milton Keynes-based outfit to remain competitive in the future and keep their star driver.

20 years ago after signing the legendary Adrian Newey, the team were still in their infancy and struggling to finish Formula 1 races.

It didn’t stop then-driver David Coulthard from making one eerily accurate Red Bull prediction about their future – that they would become champions one day.

READ MORE: Why David Coulthard doubted that Red Bull would ever win a Grand Prix after joining in 2005

Christian Horner once made a ‘stupid bet’ that David Coulthard wouldn’t score a Red Bull podium, it backfired

Ahead of the 2006 Monaco Grand Prix, team boss Horner had major doubts over whether the team could be successful at one of the toughest circuits on the calendar.

He made a bet with Coulthard and Martin Brundle. A podium would result in him jumping into Red Bull’s swimming pool naked. Horner told the Talking Bull podcast that it’s something he ended up regretting.

“DC did well in qualifying, he was in the top ten. In the race, he suddenly started to win places. We went from eighth to fourth, because our strategy was also in good shape,” said Horner in 2020.

“And all of a sudden he was in the top three. In the meantime, I had already forgotten that stupid bet. When DC crossed the finish line, Martin announced that it would cost me a jump in the pool and then David said again on the on-board radio that he was looking forward to seeing me take my suit off.

“Oh s—, I thought. I thought I would get away with it if I did it in the dark. I’m a man of my word, but I would do it when nobody is looking. Because nobody wants to see that,” he continued.

“Unfortunately, all the international media was around the pool. Luckily David was so merciful to give [me] his cape to hide my masculinity. I did learn from that to never make another bet with DC or Martin Brundle.”

READ MORE: David Coulthard explains his pivotal role in Sebastian Vettel becoming a Red Bull driver

Which year was Red Bull’s worst-ever Formula 1 season?

After joining the sport officially in 2005, it took Red Bull just five years to win their first championship (a double crown) in 2010.

Since then, they have always been victory contenders. Those five years it took them to build the operation up were a testing time.

Horner didn’t understand Newey’s first Red Bull engineering meeting, but the man who mattered most did.

After suffering their worst statistical season in 2006, collecting the lowest points total (16) that they have ever managed, things improved for 2007.

They went from seventh to fifth in the constructors’ standings and the path to success had been laid. The rest, they say, is history…