Last Updated on July 10 2025, 4:48 pm

Today feels like the day after the Lord Mayor’s show – to coin a phrase. After the bombshell news dropped that Formula One’s longes standing team principals was sacked by Red Bull parent company directors.  Christian Horner was under the cosh last year when confidential documents emerged from an independent enquiry which suggested he had been ‘sexting’ a female employee.

Horner was cleared twice of the allegations by an independent Kings Council, the highest level of court advocate ranking in the UK legal system. With Jos Verstappen alleged to have had a relationship with the same female employee, the water at Red Bull racing turned quickly sour.

Jos called for Horner to leave his role as team principal, claiming otherwise “the team would be torn apart.” Yet despite attempts by  the Austrian directors of the parent company to dismiss Horner, he was saved by the Thai majority shareholder, who is the son of the Thai businessman who co-founded the energy drinks empire along with Didi Mateschitz.

 

 

Thai owner transfers crucial 2% shareholding

The death of Mateschitz during the USGP in 2022, left a void in the boardroom which his son and Oliver Minzlaff sought to exploit. The Red Bull GmbH parent company was founded by a Thai businessman along with the now deceased Austrian marketeer and their ownership structure was simple. Each took 49% of the shareholding while the remaining 2% was given to Chalerm Yoovidhya, the son of the Thai partner with Mateschitz.

He has kept this holding for over four decades and it proved crucial in preventing the Austrians from dismissing him from Red Bull racing last year. Now details have come to light which show the 2% had been transferred by Yoovidhya, earlier this year, meaning the Mateschitz heir and the Thai family now had 49% each.

A controlling interest in a company allows a shareholder to nominate a board which will act on behalf of the stock holder. Now equal partners with Mateschitz heir, Yoovidhya had lost control of the decision making. On the 20th of May this year, Chalerm transferred the 2% stake to Fides Trustees SA, a Geneva-based trust company, according to an Austrian regulatory filing published to the corporate registry on Monday.

The listing didn’t specify why the stake was transferred nor where it will end up and it is not stated who the ultimate beneficiary will be according to Bloomberg Billionaires Index. “Fiduciary solutions such as this are common in order to ensure long-term continuity in large, successful companies,” a spokesperson for Red Bull GmbH said by email to a request from Fortune, declining to comment further on internal company or family decisions.

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Red Bull sale now back on the cards

The family representatives which retain the 49% to this day were contacted for comment, but no reply was received. Fides Trustees says its “clients are typically international high and ultra-high net worth families and individuals” and that it works alongside their advisors reviewing and revising their personal and financial structures.

The filing was signed by Chalerm and the three Austrian executives who’ve led Red Bull GMbH since the death of co-founder Dietrich Mateschitz. Chalerm posed for pictures with Christian Horner at the recent Austrian Grand Prix, but whether knowingly or not, his power of veto to again protect the Red Bull team boss was now nil and void.

It appears once the filing had completed all its regulatory stages, the Austrians then moved quickly to oust Horner and this time they had the votes required. Just months before the death of Didi Mateschitz, Porsche pulled out of negotiations to buy 50% of the Red Bull Racing team. At the time Christian Horner suggested the deal collapsed because Red Bull would lose their nimble entrepreneurial structure and potentially be subsumed by a corporate oversight which did for the Jaguar F1 project owned by Ford.

Oliver Minztlaff was keen to get the deal away with Porsche, but ran up against a veto in the form of the majority shareholder backing Horner. Getting rid of Christian Horner now as Red Bull team principal, opens the way for the Austrian to pitch for investors and liquidate around $1.5bn of cash for a 50/50 shareholding in the Milton Keynes Racing team.

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The irony of Ford buying the team back they sold

With Horner out of the way, its likely there will soon be reports of new partners buying into the Red Bull team. Whether Porsche can be tempted back to the table is uncertain, but ironically Ford who sold the team to the Red Bull founder in 2004, are now partnering in the design and build of the new Red Bull Powertrains division in Milton Keynes.

Further, Red Bull would retain their marketing position as part owners in the team while Ford would return to Formula One after a 20 year absence. Horner’s resistance to losing control at Red Bull Racing by opposing new 50/50 partners in Porsche, may well be the reason he finally lost his job yesterday.

Dr. Helmut Marko has spoken out on the recent events in Milton Keynes, although his testimony to the work of Christian Horner across twenty years was lacking in sentiment. 

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Marko breaks silence over Horner dismissal

“Christian and I have worked together very successfully for over 20 years – both in Formula 1 and in Formula 3000,” began Marko’s statement. “I would like to sincerely thank Christian for that. During this time, we were able to celebrate an incredible number of outstanding achievements,” said the Red Bull advisor.

“We helped develop two World Drivers’ Champions and several Grand Prix winners. That has always been – and still is – the Red Bull way.  As for the current sporting situation: there are still 12 races to go, and we will continue to fight for the Drivers’ Championship as long as it’s mathematically possible.”

With Christian Horner gone, the Austrians have appointed Laurent mikes as CEO, but interesting it did not state he was also the team principal. To facilitate the sale of the team, new structures will be required, and it could be Laurent is the corporate head of the two teams, Red Bull Technologies and Red Bull Powertrains. 

 

 

 

Bottas confirms Alpine talks to replace Colapinto

With the Formula One world turned upside down yesterday, following the breaking news that Christian Horner had been sacked by the Austrian parent company of Red Bull Racing, the silly season gets even sillier with a delicious number of options now possible.

Despite building the team from the ashes of the failed Jaguar F1 programme, neither Horner nor Adrian Newey whom he recruited were ever given shares in the racing organisation. Meanwhile, Toto Wolff who rocked up more than half a decade after Newey joined Red Bull owns a third of the Mercedes AMG F1 team valued last November by Blackbook motorsport to be in the region of US$3.94 billion.

With salaries of around $15m a year, Newey and Horner are wealthy men indeed, but not in the league of those who own shares in a Formula One team. A key part of Newey’s deal when Lawrence Stroll lured him to Aston Martin, was that the guru F1 car designer received equity in the Silverstone based team along with a title which states he is a partner…. READ MORE