I joke that it feels like I\u2019m interviewing Halliwell-Horner instead of Horner. Everyone laughs but I will soon ask Horner about the impact on his marriage in 2024 when an investigation was carried out into allegations he had sent \u201chundreds\u201d of inappropriate texts and photographs<\/a> to a female employee when Red Bull\u2019s team principal. The woman was apparently \u201cupset, angry, scared, intimidated and lonely\u201d<\/a> while the tabloids speculated that Halliwell-Horner was \u201cfurious\u201d.<\/p>\n Horner was exonerated<\/a> by two independent investigations but other hurtful circumstances then surrounded his sudden departure from Red Bull in July 2025. The team has struggled since then but, nine days ago, at the Bahrain Grand Prix, Max Verstappen won<\/a> Red Bull\u2019s first race with an engine built entirely by the team. Verstappen then won again<\/a> in Singapore this past Sunday. That feat of engineering had been conceived and instigated by Horner near the end of his remarkable 20 years at Red Bull.<\/p>\n Christian Horner and Geri Halliwell-Horner after Red Bull won the Bahrain Grand Prix in 2024. Photograph: David Davies\/PA<\/p>\n When Halliwell-Horner disappears after a final hug, Horner is amiable yet careful. However, the 52-year-old admits his distress after he was forced out: \u201cIt felt particularly brutal and sad to finish in that manner. But I now have a reasonable relationship with Oliver Mintzlaff [the CEO of corporate projects at Red Bull]. He rang the other day and thanked me for all I\u2019d done for the engine.\u201d<\/p>\n His dismissal<\/a>, Horner reiterates, \u201cwas painful. Very painful. I didn\u2019t really process it till a month later because, in the immediate aftermath, I focused on supporting my daughter [Olivia] through a hideous period.\u201d<\/p>\n Horner and his former partner, Beverley Allen, became parents to Olivia in 2013. After they separated, he and Allen remained on good terms and so grief, following her death from eye cancer, framed his demise at Red Bull. As he recalls that difficult period, he pays fleeting tribute to his arch-rival, Toto Wolff, the head of Mercedes, who has addressed his battle with depression<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cToto was very brave to talk openly about such a factor for people our age. I hadn\u2019t experienced those issues but I had an appreciation during this period of how people could [suffer]. The identity of many middle-aged guys is through their work. Suddenly you have that stripped and taken from you. Who are you? What are you? What is your purpose? You either curl up into a ball or brush yourself down and get up.\u201d<\/p>\n Horner, who arrived in 2005 as the youngest team principal in F1 history, adds: \u201cWhen I started at Red Bull, there were under 400 people. When I left, there was 2,200. I poured my heart and soul into that business and convinced people to leave other teams for Red Bull. I never had a big turnover in staff because there was tremendous loyalty over a long period. The startup engine business had been founded in 2021 and I was about to get it on the track when I left. I felt great sadness in not seeing that engine in a car.\u201d<\/p>\n He broke down briefly while telling staff of his fate<\/a>. \u201cIt was very strange because that group became your extended family. So the tears on grown men\u2019s faces was deeply moving.\u201d<\/p>\n Christian Horner on the grid at the Netherlands Grand Prix in 2023. Photograph: Tim Goode\/PA<\/p>\n In his new book, which provides a thorough overview of his career, Horner describes the day he replaced Tony Purnell, his predecessor, in 2005: \u201cFormula One is ruthless, I thought, watching from my car as Tony and Dave Pitchforth, their just-fired managing director, carried glum expressions and cardboard boxes stuffed with personal belongings \u2026 when I was eventually shown to my office, it resembled a crime scene. A barely drunk cup of coffee had been abandoned on the desk. Through the walls, I heard Tony\u2019s PA sobbing.\u201d<\/p>\n Horner says now: \u201cHistory repeats itself. Not all teams act in that way. A lot of teams haven\u2019t delivered over the years but you don\u2019t see the same brutality as when I left. We had pole position at the previous race.\u201d<\/p>\n At last year\u2019s British Grand Prix<\/a>, just before Horner\u2019s sacking, Verstappen was leading when \u201cthe rain came\u201d.<\/p>\n Horner also mentions his \u201crelief\u201d at leaving. \u201cThe last two years had been pretty tough but it was a particularly sensitive time, with the bereavement of my daughter\u2019s mum the previous week. I had an 11-year-old child grieving her mother. Nothing was more important than that.\u201d<\/p>\n There had been a power struggle at Red Bull following the death in 2022 of Dietrich Mateschitz<\/a>, the company\u2019s billionaire founder who always backed Horner. Both Helmut Marko<\/a>, a key consultant, and Jos Verstappen, Max\u2019s father, seemed keen to undermine Horner. \u201cHelmut could be blunt and I was disappointed he\u2019d stayed as a guest of our family two days before [Horner\u2019s sacking] with no indication this was coming,\u201d Horner reveals.<\/p>\n Max Verstappen and Christian Horner in 2024. Photograph: Clive Rose\/Getty Images<\/p>\n What about Verstappen Sr? \u201cThere\u2019s nothing to say.\u201d<\/p>\n Were the Verstappens partly responsible for Horner\u2019s removal? \u201cNo, it was a Red Bull decision. After Dietrich died, things changed in the leadership.\u201d<\/p>\n Horner says the reasons for his sacking remain opaque, apart from a general discontent that the team no longer matched the domination it had enjoyed in two separate spells when Sebastian Vettel and Verstappen won multiple championships: \u201cI think it was a feeling there was too much control in my hands. But I wasn\u2019t really given a reason.\u201d<\/p>\n Did the 2024 allegations contribute to his dismissal? \u201cI\u2019d come through that, dismissed them. So this was more focused on performance and the future.\u201d<\/p>\n Was he worried his marriage might be in jeopardy after the texts and photographs were leaked? \u201cMy wife was a pillar of support throughout and I just had to believe in the process. I\u2019ve said enough about it in the book and previously.\u201d<\/p>\n Yet the book does not outline the allegations against him or provide any details of his defence. \u201cI\u2019ve said everything I can say, and there are certain legal reasons [why] I\u2019m not at liberty to go further.\u201d<\/p>\n skip past newsletter promotion<\/a><\/p>\n Sign up to Sport in Focus<\/p>\n Our picture editors select their favourite sporting images from the past week, from the spectacular to the powerful, and with a little bit of fun thrown in<\/p>\n after newsletter promotion<\/p>\n Horner is more precise when asked if there is a chance he might never work in F1 again. \u201cAbsolutely. But if I don\u2019t go back I had a hell of a run. I won one in every four races I competed in. I had 287 podiums out of 405 races.\u201d<\/p>\n He says: \u201cNobody could take away the 124 wins and 14 championships [six constructors\u2019 and eight drivers\u2019 titles]. But I felt particularly hurt and robbed I didn\u2019t have the opportunity to see that [Red Bull-manufactured] Powertrains engine win.\u201d<\/p>\n Horner watched Verstappen\u2019s victory the Sunday before last on television and \u201cI felt very proud seeing what it meant to everybody and that they sent the Powertrains representative on to the podium. I had messages throughout the team and I texted Max after the race. He was very magnanimous and it was a landmark moment to see that engine win. It reinforced to me that, if you assemble the right people with the right culture and the necessary tools, anything is possible.\u201d<\/p>\n Yet he still believes the team has lost its mojo. \u201cRed Bull has been the maverick team. It\u2019s pushed the boundaries. Only Red Bull would do something crazy enough to build a new engine as a subsidiary of a fizzy drinks manufacturer. Its mantra was to be nonconformist, to be a disruptor. It\u2019s a little different now.\u201d<\/p>\n Laurent Mekies, Christian Horner\u2019s replacement at Red Bull. Photograph: Hollandse Hoogte\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n Who is in charge of Red Bull\u2019s team \u2013 Laurent Mekies, his successor, or Max Verstappen? He laughs. \u201cI\u2019m not getting drawn into that. Ultimately Oliver Mintzlaff is the most senior guy and obviously Max is a massive asset. I employed Laurent but I can\u2019t judge how he operates.\u201d<\/p>\n Horner argues that his comments last month about Ferrari being \u201ca dream job\u201d applied more to other people than himself. He would prefer to return with a team where he has a part-ownership stake. In regard to Ferrari and their currently beleaguered team principal, Horner suggests \u201cFred Vasseur is an experienced guy. He\u2019s done a decent job. But I, more than anyone, know the pressures of running a competitive organisation. My comments got taken out of context<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cFerrari is the biggest brand in F1. It\u2019s the most historic team. But I\u2019ve accumulated some phenomenal capital behind me, to look at the next move I potentially make in the sport. That would be with ownership attached to it and Ferrari aren\u2019t going to sell shares. So I\u2019m happy to sit outside the sport and see what opportunities present themselves over the coming months or years. It\u2019s not a prerequisite that I go back. I would only return for the right opportunity with like-minded people that want to win. I would never go back just to take part.\u201d<\/p>\n Horner says: \u201cFor the last 21 years I would have been sitting in Singapore right now. But it\u2019s my daughter\u2019s 13th birthday today and I\u2019m taking her to see Hamilton at the theatre tonight.\u201d<\/p>\n What does he miss most about F1? \u201cThe people, the team, the competition. I still love the sport but I don\u2019t miss the travel and politics.\u201d<\/p>\n Wolff said Horner had \u201cbroken too much glass\u201d to return to F1. Horner grins: \u201cHe also said this [Red Bull] engine was going to be completely shit and a disaster. Toto\u2019s got it quite easy at the moment. Zak Brown [the head of McLaren] is compromised because he\u2019s using Toto\u2019s engine so he can\u2019t ruffle feathers. All sport needs rivalry, whether it\u2019s Ferguson and Wenger, Mourinho and Guardiola. It percolates and polarises. I used that to galvanise good people to take on Mercedes.\u201d<\/p>\n Christian Horner on his great rivalry with Mercedes boss Toto Wolff: \u2018All sport needs rivalry, whether it\u2019s Ferguson and Wenger, Mourinho and Guardiola. It percolates and polarises.\u2019 Photograph: Mark Thompson\/Getty Images<\/p>\n Yet F1 takes its toll and Horner admits he has suffered panic attacks. \u201cI didn\u2019t know what it was. You suddenly feel dizzy and conscious of your breathing and you think there\u2019s something strange going on. I put it down to having had too much coffee on an oppressive, muggy, thundery day. Then it happened again. I got checked out and there was nothing physically the matter. They said: \u2018We think you have anxiety. Your breathing\u2019s very shallow.\u2019 It was my body telling me you\u2019re pushing pretty hard here. I\u2019m able to recognise the symptoms now and let it go, and breathe.\u201d<\/p>\n What might he be doing 10 years from now? \u201cI\u2019m looking forward to finding out. It could be at a racetrack, it could be sitting on a tractor.\u201d<\/p>\n He laughs again before showing his real conviction. \u201cI know my strength is getting a group of people across different skill sets to work as a team. That\u2019s possibly applicable to other things but, at the moment, the only thing that really motivates and excites me is Formula One.\u201d<\/p>\n Drive by Christian Horner is published by Bantam on 22 October. Available on pre-order from Guardian Bookshop<\/a>. He will be sharing stories from the book on tour across the UK from 17-2<\/a>6 October<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Christian Horner should be in steamy Singapore, preparing for another grand prix victory, but here he is, at…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":930615,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[441],"tags":[49,48,578,576,577,82],"class_list":["post-930614","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-f1","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/930614","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=930614"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/930614\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/930615"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=930614"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=930614"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=930614"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/1791834732_212_1008.jpg\")
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