Christian Horner created ‘chaos’ hiring problem that Red Bull now want to avoid happening ever again

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Red Bull Racing will always be closely associated with Christian Horner, even if all ties between the two parties have finally been severed.

Christian Horner was removed as team principal of Red Bull after this year’s British Grand Prix.

His star driver, Max Verstappen, was quickly falling out of contention to win the drivers’ championship following four successive title wins.

There were also years of issues building up on the other side of the garage, with Yuki Tsunoda currently sitting 18th in the standings following his mid-season switch with Liam Lawson.

Laurent Mekies was appointed as Horner’s successor and has several key issues he needs to address.

He has avoided the first disaster that could have thwarted his efforts, with Verstappen committing to at least one more year at Red Bull.

However, the team aren’t currently in a position to topple McLaren in the constructors’ standings, and that may be partly to do with the lack of new staff who were convinced to join Red Bull during Horner’s last two years in charge.

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Red Bull suffered from hiring issues during Christian Horner’s last years in charge

Journalist Ronald Vording was speaking on the James Allen on F1 Podcast about Red Bull’s current issues.

He mentioned the team’s infrastructure still being a problem, something Horner himself also admitted, before explaining: “So, infrastructure is one bit because Mekies said, I really believe we are still, even after people leaving, but still we have a lot of talent in this team. We just need to give them all the best tools that they need, and they don’t have that at the moment. That’s the truth.

“And the second part is, of course, assessing the team and seeing, OK, where do we need to strengthen the team, which is a really, really interesting point that some people told me off the record.

“They said at Red Bull, the current situation is also with all the noise they had in the last two years with the Horner thing and everything else.

“And they said the decline is not only about people leaving the team, it’s also about people who didn’t want to join the team at the same time, because of course, with all the chaos going on.

“And I think that’s a very, very interesting point. And I think that’s something they also want to prevent from happening again.

“So, these first couple of months are just about assessing the team, but also creating peace, calmness and creating a good environment that people want to work in.”

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Red Bull have struggled to replace key staff under Christian Horner

The list of people who have recently left Red Bull would make worrying reading for any Formula 1 team principal.

Adrian Newey, Jonathan Wheatley and Rob Marshall are the headline names, and while Red Bull have brought in plenty of staff from their rivals to work on the Red Bull Powertrains project, bringing in top-level personnel appears to have been a problem.

There are question marks over Pierre Wache’s work, as he attempts to step into Newey’s shoes and give both Red Bull’s drivers an easier-to-handle car.

Tsunoda was furious with his strategy in Belgium and Hungary, and those are issues that arose far less often when Wheatley was in the team.

Mekies is unlikely to have as much control over proceedings as Horner ever did, with the likes of Helmut Marko expected to wield more power.

Whether that’s a good thing or a bad thing is yet to be seen, and while Red Bull have encouraged promoting their most talented staff from within, bringing in people with an outside perspective could be just what they need at this stage.