{"id":173851,"date":"2025-09-27T23:13:09","date_gmt":"2025-09-27T23:13:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/173851\/"},"modified":"2025-09-27T23:13:09","modified_gmt":"2025-09-27T23:13:09","slug":"why-red-bull-is-better-off-without-christian-horner-as-f1-progress-continues","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/173851\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Red Bull is ‘better off’ without Christian Horner as F1 progress continues"},"content":{"rendered":"

Red Bull is \u201cbetter off\u201d with Laurent Mekies at the helm instead of Christian Horner, according to former Formula 1<\/a> team boss Guenther Steiner.<\/p>\n

The Milton Keynes-based squad<\/a> has enjoyed an upturn in form since the resumption of the summer break, with Max Verstappen claiming victory in Baku and Monza.<\/p>\n

Mekies has been praised for the new approach he has taken at the helm, having commenced work immediately after the team\u2019s firing of Horner, days after the British Grand Prix.<\/p>\n

It ended the 51-year-old\u2019s 20-year tenure at the top, having been its only Team Principal.<\/p>\n

Speaking on the Red Flags podcast, Steiner was posed the topic: \u201cRed Bull is better off with Mekies than Horner,\u201d and was prompted to say \u2018gas\u2019 to agree, or \u2018brake\u2019 to disagree.<\/p>\n

\u201cGas,\u201d Steiner responded. \u201cAnd the reason is, it seems the team is calmer.<\/p>\n

\u201cBefore, it was every week and there was a news story, they didn\u2019t get on, this guy didn\u2019t get one with this one. <\/p>\n

\u201cAt the moment, they seem to be working in harmony, and therefore, I think they are better off.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"FormerFormer Haas boss Guenther Steiners believes Red Bull is better off without Christian Horner<\/p>\n

Previous Red Bull \u2018unhappiness\u2019 part of Steiner\u2019s thinking on Horner<\/p>\n

Horner\u2019s ties to Red Bull were officially severed on Tuesday<\/a>, having agreed a whopping payout with the team.<\/p>\n

Horner\u2019s tenure ended amid a contentious period within the team, where there appeared to be somewhat of a power struggle within the ranks.<\/p>\n

It came after a period in which Horner was the subject of allegations surrounding his private life, which were later dismissed.<\/p>\n

The team\u2019s harmony appeared to be under threat, which Steiner believes has been restored since Mekies\u2019 arrival.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not putting this one down, the results they had the last two races, to Christian being gone,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

\u201cI just put it down to, there was unhappiness, but that was now for one-and-a-half years in the team. And now, it seems to be working pretty smooth.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd obviously, Laurent, he is a good leader. He\u2019s very calm. He doesn\u2019t get involved in politics and stuff like this. He\u2019s just doing his job. <\/p>\n

\u201cAnd before, there was just, like, always friction in the team between different parties, and I never understood between who it was.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, I think therefore, they are better off. Therefore, it\u2019s \u2018gas\u2019, yeah.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re not worse off. They\u2019re winning races with Laurent there. It\u2019s not down to Laurent, in my opinion. I wouldn\u2019t give him credit for that, but I would give him credit for calming everything down inside the team.\u201d<\/p>\n

Steiner added: \u201cI don\u2019t credit the results, the last two wins. They are not because Laurent is there. I think the team in general is better off now for the future.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe results, you cannot come in and the next day having wins. It cannot happen.\u201d<\/p>\n

READ MORE \u2013 The \u2018coaching\u2019 Yuki Tsunoda has received as Red Bull F1 drive hangs in the balance<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Red Bull is \u201cbetter off\u201d with Laurent Mekies at the helm instead of Christian Horner, according to former…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":173852,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[572],"tags":[64,63,817,71584,806,805,803,804,15196,85,113038],"class_list":{"0":"post-173851","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-motosport","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-f1","11":"tag-horner","12":"tag-motor","13":"tag-motor-sports","14":"tag-motosport","15":"tag-motosports","16":"tag-redbull","17":"tag-sports","18":"tag-steiner"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/173851","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=173851"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/173851\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/173852"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=173851"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=173851"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=173851"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}