REACTION! Christian Horner SACKED by Red Bull ⚠️

The Ultimate Showdown!

Watch as Sky Sports F1's Martin Brundle reacts to the news that Christian Horner has been sacked with immediate effect from Red Bull, after 20 years at the team.

Transcript

00:00Surprise news, but was it a surprise to you?

00:03I think it's completely out of the blue, given things that are going on

00:08and the sort of problems in the team, words you're getting out of Team Verstappen and others.

00:16I'm quite sad about it, if I'm honest.

00:18I consider Christian a friend and he's done an incredible job there for 20 years,

00:23won an awful lot of races and world championships for drivers and for the team.

00:28And he took it from what was the Stewart team through Jaguar.

00:33And it was struggling to a massive campus in Milton Keynes and an awful lot of success

00:40and a huge trophy cabinet.

00:42So, but, you know, it's not been difficult to feel in the Formula One paddock

00:49and to observe and to hear that things were not particularly rosy.

00:54Do you feel that that sort of breakdown in the relationship following that investigation,

01:00which, of course, he always denied and he was cleared as well by internal and external investigations into that,

01:06it sort of wasn't really repaired off the back of that and that caused these sort of divisions?

01:11I think that's probably part of it.

01:17I believe it's probably performance related as well.

01:22I don't know.

01:24I think that I think it perhaps makes it more likely that Verstappens will stay there.

01:32I think that came quite personal in, shall we call it, Team Verstappen.

01:38So I think there are a number of aspects, but particularly that the car is struggling.

01:47Although they've won races this year, of course, they've won races brilliantly this year.

01:51So I'm due to speak to Christian a bit later in the day for the message to him to say,

01:56sorry to read that, in fact, I said to him, can we have a chat before I have to go on TV?

02:02Because I want to know more about it from his point of view.

02:06And he wasn't able to do that.

02:09What he did say to me was that no reason was given to him as to why he's been released.

02:14So that's the only hard information I have on that.

02:18But, you know, nothing's forever.

02:21Things move on and Red Bull have already put in place significant changes.

02:27Laurent Mackey comes over from Racing Bulls, their junior team, sister team.

02:31Alan Vermein takes over the reins there.

02:33So, you know, they've very quickly put into place solutions.

02:38You mentioned as well that you hinted that Max Verstappen obviously looks likely to continue with the team.

02:49But what about the future for Verstappen?

02:51How does this change things?

02:54Well, it remains to be seen.

02:55I mean, every point, podium, victory and world championship Max has through his own genius driving,

03:03it must be said, is in a Red Bull car.

03:07And he's often stated he wants to see his career out there if he can.

03:13But, you know, they're debuting their own engine for the first time next year

03:18in what is going to be the biggest change in Formula One history of car and power unit at the same time.

03:24So, you know, Christian's been in the seat and driving that aspect of the team along completely.

03:34So we know that Max has an exit clause based on where he is in the world championship at the end of this month.

03:45Does this mean he's more likely to go, more likely to stay?

03:48I can only surmise it means he's more likely to stay at the team.

03:52Look, Christian's been at the helm there for an incredible, as you mentioned, I mean, 20 years.

03:59How difficult will it be for them to move on?

04:03Obviously, we're, you know, through the season at the moment as well,

04:06just off the back of the British Grand Prix.

04:08You've got a couple of weeks before you go again.

04:12Yeah, you know, the people that they're putting in place have got a lot of experience in Formula One.

04:18And the sort of maverick team boss, that era is, the teams are so big now, that era is moving away.

04:30It's more a collection of specialists in different management roles rather than one team talisman out there, if you like.

04:39So, you know, there's momentum, incredible momentum in these teams.

04:46They've got well over 1,000 people making two racing cars to go around the circuit 24 times a year.

04:51That's obviously underplaying the incredible complexity of Formula One cars and a Formula One season.

04:59But they are, I don't see, the team are not going to fall over immediately because, as I said,

05:07they've got momentum structures in place, people in place.

05:10And, you know, we'll see.

05:13I mean, this all really, for me, this all goes back to Dietrich Mateschitz dying,

05:17the originator, the 49% owner of Red Bull, who started it together with the Uvidia family, I should say,

05:26back in the day, and he was in charge.

05:30Nothing happened without Dietrich Mateschitz signing off.

05:35And he was the absolute leader of that group.

05:40And I think you've seen since his death and all sorts of other people and structures coming in,

05:47you can see where it all started to go wrong, frankly.

05:51Could you tell us a little bit more about Laurent Mechies?

05:54Is, obviously, the new CEO of Red Bull Racing?

05:59A lot of experience at Ferrari and teams at the FIA.

06:04And we're seeing this more and more now.

06:06I mean, look at the incredible job, for example, Andrea Stella's doing at McLaren as team principal

06:12with James Fowles at Williams, people with a technical background, a team background,

06:19sort of in the driving seat of that aspect of, as I said, massive organisations now.

06:26So Laurent, I think, has done a great job at racing bulls.

06:31And clearly, they've seen that within the Red Bull group and immediately moved him over.

06:36Jonathan Wheatley, who I think would have fancied that job big time,

06:42has moved over to Switzerland for the Sauber that becomes Audi team.

06:47And I think the fact that he fancied that Christian's job perhaps expedited that, may I say.

06:56But, yeah, so this is what we're seeing now.

07:00And then Alan Permain, who's taken over from Laurent Mechies at Racing Bull,

07:04has a huge amount of experience of the operational side of a Formula One team,

07:11rather than, say, that sort of maverick leader, as it were.

07:16Martin, look, we really appreciate you speaking to us.

07:18I know you'd have hoped to have spoken to Christian before you joined us as well.

07:21So hopefully you do get that chat in.

07:23But we really appreciate it.

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