Christian Horner Out at Red Bull After 20 Years

Christian Horner, who has been CEO and Team Principal of Red Bull Racing since 2005 and won six Constructors’ Championships in that time, has been fired, Red Bull confirmed on Wednesday, in what counts as earth-shattering news in the world of Formula 1.

Horner is also very familiar to viewers of Netflix’s Drive to Survive as the feisty and occasionally smug face of Red Bull Racing and the husband of Geri Halliwell, a.k.a. Ginger Spice of the Spice Girls.

“Red Bull has released Christian Horner from his operational duties with effect from today,” the team said in a statement, adding that it was naming Laurent Mekies, the Team Principal of its sibling team Racing Bulls, as Horner’s replacement. Max Verstappen, Red Bull’s superstar driver and four-time world champion who has occasionally clashed with Horner, noted Horner’s departure on X.

“Thank you for everything, Christian!” Verstappen wrote.

Horner was the subject of an investigation last year when an employee alleged inappropriate behavior, but Horner was eventually cleared and appeared, then, to be set for more years in charge of one of Formula 1’s most successful teams. However, on top of the investigation into his management, there has been a brain drain at Red Bull that may be affecting the team’s performance as well. Last year Adrian Newey, one of the sport’s most legendary car designers left for Aston Martin. Jonathan Wheatley, Red Bull’s sporting director, also departed to become the team principal at Sauber (which becomes Audi next season), a team which has greatly improved this year.

In recent weeks, Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff has made no secret of his desire to potentially poach Verstappen to drive for Mercedes next year alongside George Russell. Red Bull also started the season with Liam Lawson as Verstappen’s teammate, but Lawson was demoted just two races into the season. His replacement, Yuki Tsunoda, has not fared much better, though, which some blamed on Horner.

Sky Sports analyst Craig Slater said Wednesday that the firing was finalized on Tuesday by the Red Bull board, and Horner was also told then. This morning in Britain, Horner addressed staff at the team’s campus in Milton Keynes, which Sky announcer David Croft said was “hugely emotional,” before Horner left the campus around 11:25 a.m. local time. As of publication, Horner has not yet commented on his firing.

“I am quite sad about it as I consider Christian a friend and he has done an incredible job for 20 years and won an awful lot of races and world championships for drivers and the team,” Sky Sports commentator Martin Brundle said. “But it has not been difficult to feel in the Formula 1 paddock to observe, and hear, that things were not particularly rosy.”

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Verstappen is third in the Drivers’ Championship standings and his car has remained competitive this year despite the team’s overall sad posture, but he’s also 69 points behind leader Oscar Piastri and, with 12 races to go, not expected to contend for the title, barring a complete collapse from McLaren.