Last Updated on July 13 2025, 11:49 am
As the dust settles in Milton Keynes after a week of emotion and shock following the sacking of Christian Horner, theres one huge question which remains unanswered. Why did the Austrian administrators at the Red Bull Racing parent company decide to part company with the second most successful F1 team boss in history.
Now in fourth place in the constructors’ title race, Red Bull are in their lowest position since their terrible 2015 season. This fact alone has precipitated theories suggesting Horner’s removal was based on a perceived lack of performance as McLaren run away with both championships in 2025.
Yet this is a nonsense proposition given the biggest change in the F1 car and power unit design regulations is just months away. Further, under founder Didi Mateschitz the decision was taken for Red Bull to become the first engine customer team to build their own powertrain. All in all this means the pecking order in 2026 could literally see any of the 11 teams ace the regulations as did Brawn in 2009.
Alleged ‘brain drain’ smoke and mirrors
So then the performance of the current iteration of the RB21 is in fact irrelevant as in 12 race weekends time it will be consigned to history. Next up is the alleged brain drain with Rob Marshall, Jonathan Wheatley and Adrian Newey all leaving the team within the past two years.
Yet Newey aside, the others were offered significant promotions which Red Bull could not accommodate. Wheatley is now team principal of Audi and Marshall left to fulfil the technical director role at McLaren. The Newey matter appears to have been driven by Adrian himself stepping away from the heart of the F1 team design function voluntarily back in 2018. He decided to work part time and spend six months a year in South Africa.
In the twilight years of his career, Newey appears to have wanted to take back some control as unlocking the secrets of a massive new design set of regulation changes was too tough to refuse. Amanda Newey gave a huge indication as to the reasoning behind Newey’s dissatisfaction with Red Bull when she posted more than once “absolute hogwash” to suggestions the record breaking RB19 was not exclusively his creation.
“Adrian is a big part of this team and big part of what we’ve achieved,” Horner said. “But of course, his role has evolved over the last few years and the technical team beneath him led by Pierre Wache, they’re doing a wonderful job and so that they’re not reliant on Adrian,” said Christian Horner in an interview with Motorsport.com. It was to the thread of comments underneath where Amanda made her presence felt.
Little chance of Max leaving for 2026
And finally on the brain drain, the Red Bull way has always to promote from within. The last big hitter the team recruited from outside the business was Newey himself in 2006. With performance and a lack of recruitment not apparently the primary reasons for Horner’s departure, there are those who advocate it was necessary to retina the services of Max Verstappen.
The world champion’s entourage had been making noises that Verstappen could be on his way to Mercedes for 2026. This despite Toto Wolff stating in Austria there was “very little probability” of the Max to Mercedes rumours coming to pass for 2026. Further, with Adrian Newey claiming the change in regulations is so huge, that nobody can predict which team will come out on top it makes no sense for Verstappen to jump ship next season.
Sky F1’s David Croft has articulated that the timing of Horner’s dismissal is combination of there reasons cited above.
“Christian, I think, is the third-longest serving team principal in the history of the sport,” he told Sky F1. “But with the results not going well, with the star driver’s camp as it were seemingly at odds with the CEO and team principal, and harmony being a bigger, rarely used word behind the scenes, and with other stories as well, it comes together.
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“And whilst the timing might be a surprise to a lot of people, I would imagine it’s just got to a stage where a decision had to be taken, and probably had to be taken because if the Verstappen camp was serious and did have options to go elsewhere, Red Bull can’t take the risk.
“[It] Can’t run the risk of Max Verstappen being at another team, winning the races and scoring the points and maybe getting the World Championship that he will undoubtedly get in a car that was good enough,” concludes the Sky commentator.
Whilst Verstappen is undoubtedly the best of his generation, if not as Jenson Button stated in Silverstone last week, “the greatest racer of all time Formula One car ever,” as with all the best F1 drivers his time will come and ago in time. In the panacea of the Red Bull Racing team they have developed three proven top drivers and race winners in Sebastian Vettel, Daniel Ricciardo and now Max Verstappen. And all under the leadership of the team boss Christina Horner.
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With Christian in situ, the team has experienced periods where they’ve been forced to re-invent themself following periods of huge success. Vettel’s four seasons of dominance was followed by six fallow years as Red Bull Racing struggled with a power unit unable to compete with the might of Mercedes’. Yet even in an era when the cost cap has been introduced which bakes in the status quo for sometime, it was the Milton Keynes based team which broke the iron fist of control the silver arrows had established in F1.
To suggests Horner who has led the team through thick and thin for two decades should leave the team based upon the fear Verstappen will leave next year, is nonsense. Max will come and go as he pleases, regardless of who is in charge of the Red Bull team. And if this is they key rationale behind the Austrian’s decision, then they may have secured some short term gain, but have traded it for long term pain.
Verstappen ‘brother-in-law’ spills the beans on Mercedes
Did Max Verstappen’s Brother-in-Law Just Drop a Mercedes Bombshell? Or Was It Just a Brazilian Babble? Max Verstappen’s possible defection from Red Bull to Mercedes has been the sport’s most persistent rumour since Christian Horner’s grip on Red Bull began loosening like a faulty DRS flap. But now, the latest twist in the tale hasn’t come from a paddock insider, a leaked yacht logbook, or a cryptic Toto Wolff eyebrow raise—it’s come from the family WhatsApp group. Allegedly.
That’s right. This time it’s Nelson Piquet Jr., the lesser-known and less-celebrated former Formula 1 driver, who may—or may not—have confirmed what Verstappen himself has been rather cagey about: that he’s talking to Mercedes and a move for 2026 is on the cards.
Of course, the internet did what it always does best: took a few ambiguous words, turned them into a firestorm, and set Twitter/X ablaze with gifs of Toto smirking and Christian Horner flipping tables…. READ MORE
With over 30 years of experience in Formula 1 as an insider journalist, I have built trusted connections across the paddock, from race engineers and mechanics to senior team figures. At The Judge 13, I and a handful of trusted colleagues share exclusive Formula 1 news, expert analysis and behind-the-scenes stories you will not find in mainstream motorsport media.
