Brash Zak Brown baits Horner again – The current Red Bull Racing F1 team finds its roots back in Stewart Grand Prix which was formed in 1997. Just two years later Jackie Stewart sold his team to the Ford motor Company who rebadged it as one of its brands – Jaguar.

Ford did a poor job of running the team with regular corporate interference from the states frustrating the señor figures at Jaguar Racing. The team was put up for sale for just US$1 on the proviso that any buyer would invest $400m in the Milton Keynes squad over the next three F1 seasons.

Christian Horner was brought in as the youngest ever F1 boss and the team marketing plan was to make F1 ‘fun again.’ Red Bull also started ‘The Red Bulletin”, a sports and adventure magazine that is released four times per race weekend and distributed to the paddock and members of the public from behind the main grandstand at each track.

 

 

 

Red Bull ‘bad boys’

The team also became associated with ‘pumping tunes’ played in the garage after each race, a favourite track often heard was “Who let the dogs out.” This fitted with the anti-establishment image the team cultivated at the time.

Horner himself was all part of the ‘bad boy’ image the team presented and having claimed their first podium at the 2006 Monaco Grand Prix, the Red Bull boss jumped into the swimming pool, in nothing but a superman cape to celebrate.

During their years of dominance with Renault (2010-2013) the culture continued to develop. Vettel on the way to his fourth drivers’ title began to get boo’d regularly as he stood atop the podium giving his one finger victory salute.

Following the 2013 Singapore Grand Prix, the crowd boo’d again and Sebastian responded during the interviews stating: “Whilst there’s a lot of people hanging their balls in the pool on Fridays, we’re still working very hard and pushing very hard so that we have a strong race.”

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Fellow countryman Nico Rosberg was unimpressed and responded: ”Sebastian brings the boos on himself. He talks about my balls that I hang in the pool and then the boos come.

“His comments are aloof and were almost his undoing qualifying. I almost stole pole from him and if I had I would have laughed. Sebastian should think less about my balls and more about himself,” said the 2016 drivers champion.

2014 saw the end of Red Bull and Renault dominance and the new kids in town were to be Mercedes. With inexperienced team boss Toto Wolff a not so friendly rivalry developed between the Austrian and Christian Horner.

With Horner complaining about Mercedes mega advantage in the V6 turbo hybrid era, Toto not so codedly said to assembled media for his rival to stop moaning and “I think just get your fucking head down, work hard and try to sort it out.” 

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Wolff/Horner petulant rivalry

Over the years the pair have fought like cat and dog and the tables turned when Red Bull aced the new 2022 ground effect F1 car design regulations. Mercedes 2022 car was bouncing viciously over the first part of the season and Wolff petitioned the FIA to change the rules.

Meanwhile Red Bull had few issues with their suspension and argued it was Mercedes who had the problem and it was not the fault of the FIA’s new rules.

A now infamous exchange took place at a team principals meeting that summer where the Netflix cameras were running. Toto accused his fellow team principals of playing with fire and predicted the rules would cause a huge incident.

“I can tell you that all of you are playing a dangerous game,” Wolff said. “If a car ends [up] in the wall because it is too stiff or it’s bottoming out, you are in the shit and I’m going to come after you.”

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Horner tells Wolff: “change your fucking car”

Horner fired back at Wolff: “Are we playing to the cameras here? I think this is probably better off-camera.” Wolff responded: “No, I don’t care. If you think this is a little game on performance, I’ll tell you, you are very, very wrong.”

Ferrari chief Mattia Binotto, who has since departed the Maranello-based squad, quipped that “safety is a matter of team responsibility”, to which Wolff responded sarcastically: “Each of you has found something to limit the problem, congratulations!”

Horner then raised his voice at Wolff and exclaimed: ”Well change your car. You’ve got a problem. Change your fucking car.”

With Red Bull dominating F1, Toto Wolff has learned to lose gracefully over the past three seasons and the spats with Horner while not finished appear to have a lesser intensity to them. Yet Horner has become a target for another ‘newbie’ to the sport in the form of McLaren CEO, Zak Brown.

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Brown now baits Horner ‘cheat’

The American penned an open letter to the FIA during the cost cap row where Red Bull were found to have overspent the new spending limit and deemed to have committed a “minor breach” of the financial regulations.

He implied Horner and his team were “cheats”, something the Red Bull boss didn’t take kindly to given the FIA had not yet declared their final ruling.

McLaren F1 are now Red Bull’s closest rivals for this year’s team championship with the points lead of the world champions being reduced significantly in recent races. The Woking based squad are now just 42 points behind Red Bull and at their current rate of progress with over take the world champions around the time of the USGP in Austin.

Now in an interview with the BBC Brown raises the spectre of his beef with Horner again.“I’ve known Christian for about 25, 30 years. We used to race against each other. I would say we used to get on,” Brown told BBC Sport.

“To me, it’s not personal. It’s protecting our sport. The cost cap, the excuses behind that, I never really heard a ‘we just got it wrong’. I heard excuses and not taking ownership,” Brown explained.

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Brash Brown worse than juvenile

The McLaren boss also had a jibe at Horner following the news Adrian Newey was to leave the team after 19 years in Milton Keynes. Brown told assembled media at the next Grand Prix claiming he’d had a raft of CV’s from Red Bull staff coming across his desk.

Then this year in Austria, McLaren driver Lando Norris tangled with Verstappen while battling for the lead of the race. Horner told his driver on team radio it was not his fault which drew criticism from Zak Brown for not challenging his driver’s ‘dangerous’ driving.

Brown then took the high ground stating: “When I see things not consistent with our values, I’m going to speak up about it because it’s important people understand where we’re coming from. As long as I’m friends with McLaren, our fans, our partners, that’s what’s most important to me,” the American concluded.

Ironically it is McLaren who have been fined the biggest amount ever by the FIA for cheating and the ‘spygate’ affair back in 2007. The $100m penalty was reduced on appeal with then president of the FIA joking the fine was, “$5 million for the offence and $95 million for Ron being a twat”.

When Wolff and Horner were knocking strips out of each other it was at worst juvenile, but the brashness of the American Brown is now taking things to a whole new level.

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Ricciardo on F1 retirement

The first half of the Formula One season has not gone as Daniel Ricciardo and his fans had hoped. Speculation about his future has been rife, with many wondering if the veteran driver will be forced to relinquish his seat with the Racing Bulls during the summer break. While talk of an exit has been quashed, Ricciardo recently addressed rumours of a possible end to his F1 career.

Daniel Ricciardo has candidly admitted that “nothing can really hurt me anymore” as his future with Red Bull hangs in the balance for the second half of the 2024 F1 season. Since returning to F1 with Red Bull’s junior team VCARB (formerly AlphaTauri) in 2023, Ricciardo has faced significant challenges, scoring points in just four of his 22 starts… READ MORE