Christian Horner was relieved of his duties as Red Bull Racing team principal and chief executive last week after 20 years in charge of the F1 team and 14 titles

Christian Horner is no longer Max Verstappen’s team boss at Red Bull Racing(Image: AP)

Martin Brundle believes it is “obvious” that Max Verstappen and his closest allies played a part in the downfall of Christian Horner. The long-serving team principal and chief executive of Red Bull Racing was sacked by the Austrian energy drinks company last week after 20 years in charge.

Horner oversaw 14 Formula 1 titles during that period, including eight drivers’ championships – four each secured by Sebastian Vettel and Max Verstappen – and six teams’ standings successes.

But the final 18 months of his tenure were both professionally and personally difficult. On track, a strong start to 2024 laid the foundation of Verstappen’s fourth drivers’ title in a row, but their performance dropped off as the season progressed while McLaren emerged as the new dominant force on the grid.

That all came after Horner was accused by a female colleague of ‘inappropriate behaviour’, which he denied. He was cleared by an external KC hired by Red Bull to investigate the allegation, but his enemies saw their chance to try to orchestrate his downfall.

One of his most vocal critics was Jos Verstappen, who publicly called for Horner’s head and was happy to regularly brief friendly journalists. Sky Sports pundit Brundle referenced that as he gave his insight into the situation while speaking on The F1 Show podcast.

He said: “Obviously, Team Verstappen had been briefing certain journalists and Christian has just come more and more under pressure, and he lost key people like Adrian Newey, like Rob Marshall, like Jonathan Wheatley.

“I think his failing on that was convincing himself and trying to convince everybody else that they weren’t really doing that much anymore, and it really didn’t matter, he’d got a better crew behind them. But that wasn’t correct, and I think we’ve seen [that].

“But, let’s remember, this is a team that was on pole position last weekend in Silverstone, one of the toughest circuits in the world, and have won two Grands Prix this year. It’s not exactly like it’s been a disaster and they completely non-performed.

“But I think there were too many things working against him, and I think eventually… He had a lot of support from [Red Bull majority owner] Chalerm Yoovidhya and I think eventually that has faded away, and the inevitable has happened.”

Horner has been succeeded in both his former roles by Laurent Mekies, who steps up from his previous post as team principal at Racing Bulls. The Frenchman has, in turn, been replaced at the sister outfit by Alan Permane who was previously sporting director.