Red Bull’s owners didn’t like what Christian Horner was saying about Zak Brown before he was fired

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Christian Horner’s chief Formula 1 adversaries have been offering their reaction to his exit. The Belgian Grand Prix marks the first race since 2004 without Horner in charge of an F1 team.

Speaking in the run-up to the Spa weekend, Zak Brown said the timing of Red Bull’s decision surprised him, but not the end result. While Horner had ‘tremendous’ success, he was struggling to contain the ever-growing ‘drama’ at Milton Keynes.

And in an interview with Sky Sports F1, Mercedes’ Toto Wolff said the ex-Red Bull boss would be missed from an ‘entertainment’ standpoint. Horner had become something of a pantomime villain figure within the paddock.

The 51-year-old was fired in the aftermath of the British GP, with Red Bull fourth in the constructors’. He helped the team win six drivers’ titles and eight constructors’ championships over two decades in charge.

Red Bull didn’t like Christian Horner making headlines in team boss disputes

Inevitably, given Red Bull’s level of performance and the length of his tenure, Horner formed some intense rivalries in F1. He fell out with Wolff during the 2021 season as Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen contested an acrimonious title battle.

Mercedes couldn’t keep up with Red Bull at the start of F1’s ground-effect era, and after two years of dominance, McLaren emerged as their new challengers. The Woking outfit dethroned Horner’s squad in the 2024 constructors’ championship, and now they’re comfortably clear of the pack.

Horner has publicly clashed with McLaren CEO Brown during that power shift. Red Bull have been closely monitoring the legality of the papaya cars, which has inevitably rubbed up their competitors the wrong way.

According to ESPN, Red Bull’s Austrian owners became ‘frustrated’ at how often Horner ‘generated headlines’ in his feuds with Brown or Wolff. They clearly felt it was bad for the team’s image.

Have Red Bull just risked jeopardising talks with £223m sponsor?

In the latest season of Drive to Survive, Horner was filmed calling Brown an expletive, but the barbs have very much flown both ways. After Verstappen and Lando Norris crashed at last year’s Austrian GP, Brown accused his counterpart of ‘wholly inappropriate’ behaviour on the radio.

Oliver Mintzlaff and co. want to rebrand as a new era begins under Laurent Mekies. But it’s believed that Red Bull’s sponsors are unhappy with the handling of Horner’s exit.

David Croft has learned that Red Bull were halfway through talks with Oracle, their title partners, when Horner was dismissed. The previous deal, up for renegotiation, was worth £223m per year.

By removing Horner, who was overseeing the commercial arm of the team, they have perhaps risked jeopardising those talks. Maybe that’s part of the reason Brown was shocked by the mid-season timing.