Red Bull may now have to pay Christian Horner over £110m to finalise exit as new details emerge after sacking

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Red Bull and Christian Horner are now locked in talks to finalise the Briton’s severance package to formally leave after being sacked as their F1 team principal after 20 years.

The 51-year-old currently remains under contract to Red Bull as his deal is not due to expire until after the 2030 F1 season. But Horner no longer has operational control as their F1 CEO and team principal after being replaced by Laurent Mekies ahead of the Belgian Grand Prix.

Red Bull sacked Horner without telling him why they were placing the Leamington Spa native on gardening leave only two days after the British Grand Prix. The team chose to give Mekies all of the three-week break between rounds to get settled in his new office in Milton Keynes.

Mekies is just the second team principal that Red Bull have known since the Austrian energy drink brand bought the ailing Jaguar squad from Ford prior to the 2005 season. But Horner’s tenure had run its course amid Red Bull’s declining form and his quest for even more power.

Red Bull could face paying Christian Horner over £110m to terminate his contract

Horner was not only the CEO and team principal of Red Bull Racing, but the Briton was even the CEO of Red Bull Powertrains having created the engine division after Honda initially quit F1. Red Bull are creating their own unit for the first time for the 2026 F1 engine regulations.

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

Additionally, Horner even oversaw the Red Bull Junior Team alongside the parent company’s motorsport adviser Helmut Marko. But Red Bull GmbH did not like Horner’s ‘power-hogging’ for a long time, and ‘embarrassing’ the company saw him lose Chalerm Yoovidhya’s support.

That is according to Auto Action, which reports that Horner’s greed played a vital role in Red Bull’s decision to sack the Briton. His various roles in Milton Keynes gifted the 51-year-old an annual salary worth in excess of £20m, which is now influencing their talks about his pay-off.

Christian Horner could use his Red Bull pay-off to buy shares in the Alpine F1 team

It has been said that Horner is negotiating a pay-off from Red Bull that can break £50m due to his contract running through 2030. Yet the figure was based on Horner’s wage as the CEO and team principal of Red Bull Racing, which was also the biggest wage of any F1 team boss.

READ MORE: All you need to know about Red Bull Racing from engine to Ford links

But his roles at Red Bull Powertrains and the Red Bull Junior Team taking Horner’s total wage above £20m a year may mean Red Bull GmbH will have to pay the Briton in excess of £110m to formally leave by paying off the remaining five-and-a-half years of his rich contract in full.

Horner will certainly try at the absolute minimum to force Red Bull GmbH to pay off the rest of his contract in full. Although the company will argue he would earn some of it, if not all of it, back by joining another Formula 1 team, should Horner ever opt to return to the paddock.

But that argument also goes the other way, as it is said that Horner may have to pay £298m to join Alpine as a 20% shareholder. The native of Leamington Spa has sought for a long time to also own shares in a Formula 1 team, but Red Bull would not make Horner a shareholder.