Sebastian Vettel breaks silence on Christian Horner being sacked from Red Bull

Sebastian Vettel has shared his reaction to Red Bull's sacking of Christian Horner and revealed that he was surprised that the team made such a call. Horner was one of the founding members of the squad and had been a pillar of the team since the very beginning.

When Red Bull initially bought the team from Jaguar, the first signing was Christian Horner as the team principal, and he was put in charge of the entire operation. The team was first looked at as just a drinks company taking part, but slowly it started taking over in terms of dominating the sport.

After winning the championship from 2010 to 2013, Christian Horner oversaw the team going through a downturn from 2014 to 2020, where the power units became the deciding factors.

It was during the second era of dominance, which began from 2021 onwards, that Red Bull first started to show cracks. In 2025, as a result of a drop in form and backdoor political turmoil, Christian Horner would be pushed out of the team and fired with immediate effect.

Talking to Sky Sports, Sebastian Vettel admitted that he was surprised by the call that Red Bull had made. Talking about how the true impact of the call that the team has made would be seen in the future, he said,

"Surprised. I mean, Christian has been there for so long, since the very beginning and knows this team inside out. I think for this year, everything was in place. I know Laurent as well, the success, and I worked with him and he’s a really, really great person. But I think Christian left some big footsteps, not just because of all the success he’s had with the team, but also I think he was such a central part of the team. He knew what was going on and so on."

Vettel was not entirely confident about what the future entails with Red Bull post-Christian Horner, as he added,

"I’m not completely aware of the organisation, the structure, and especially the plan for the future. But that’s where I think it’s valid to say, let’s wait and see how it turns out.”

Christian Horner looking at a return to F1

With no strings attached to Red Bull, Christian Horner is rumored to be plotting a return to F1 and has had a chat with almost every team on the grid. One of the prospective names that Horner was associated with was Aston Martin, but the team has already put cold water on any such association. Talking about it, Andy Cowell had said,

“I had a chat with Lawrence [Stroll, Aston Martin F1’s owner] this morning to find out what he knows. It looks as though Christian is ringing up pretty much every team owner at the moment. I can clearly say there are no plans for the involvement of Christian in an operational or investment role in the future.”

Christian Horner has reportedly put together an investment for buying a stake within a team. It would be fascinating to see how and if he does make his way back to the sport.

Edited by Charanjot Singh Kohli