Red Bull finally breaks silence on factors that led to Christian Horner getting sacked from the team

Red Bull's Helmut Marko has finally addressed the factors that led to Christian Horner being fired from the team, as he pinpoints a lack of performance as being one of them. The Austrian team shocked the F1 paddock when it announced the firing of the team boss with immediate effect.

Christian Horner had been a part of the squad since the very beginning in 2005. He was ironically picked up by Helmut Marko and selected to be the first team principal at Red Bull. Since then, Horner built the Milton Keynes unit bit by bit to the point where it became a perennial frontrunner.

Overseeing two dominant runs in different regulations and winning world championships in three different eras meant Christian Horner had racked up a Hall of Fame career. Through all of this, he grew from strength to strength, which reportedly didn't sit well with either the Red Bull board or Helmut Marko.

The last 18 months had been turbulent for Red Bull, and during this time, the squad had dropped a few notches in performance. With the team looking highly unlikely to win the championship in 2025, it has seemingly triggered Christian Horner's exit from the squad.

Up until now, the Red Bull board has been reticent in explaining what led to Christian Horner being fired, but finally Helmut Marko has spoken out. Talking to Sky Germany, he said,

"The decision was made by Oliver Mintzlaff. We informed Christian Horner of this on Tuesday in London after the Silverstone race, at the same time officially thanking him for these 20 years and for these eight World Championship titles."

He added

"This was the result of various factors, but above all, the performance wasn’t quite as good as it could have been. Fortunately, we were able to bring Laurent Mekies into the family. His responsibilities will be significantly reduced, with the main focus being on racing.”

Max Verstappen claims the Red Bull board informed him of Christian Horner sacking

Max Verstappen also fronted the media on Thursday, and he was questioned about the call to fire Christian Horner, to which he said that he was informed by the Red Bull board about the decision. At the end of the day, it was the board's decision, and he couldn't do much about it anyway. He said,

"Well, I don’t know. At the end of the day, management and, of course, the shareholders, decided that they wanted a change and, at the end of the day they run the team and I’m the driver, so whatever they decide, it’s fully in their right to do what they want. That’s basically how it happened."

The reasoning that the performance was not as good as it could have been for Red Bull is a risky argument to make because Max Verstappen won the championship just 6 months back. If teams start using similar parameters to get rid of leaders who have contributed for two decades to the teams, then we wouldn't have any bosses left on the grid.

The team is making a new start with Laurent Mekies at the helm. It would be interesting to see how things pan out within the team in the coming days.

Edited by Charanjot Singh Kohli