McLaren CEO Zak Brown says Red Bull’s decision to dispense with the services of its team principal Christian Horner did not come as a surprise to him.
He admitted “maybe the timing” of the decision had come as a surprise, “but not the result.”
Brown, whose team ended Red Bull’s run of constructors’ championship titles last year, was one of the most outspoken bosses when Horner faced internal investigations over his conduct last year. Red Bull cleared Horner on both occasions.
However the team lost several of its senior staff members around the time. Last year Brown suggested the team’s star designer Adrian Newey left due to the disruption within Red Bull.
“I think there’s been a lot of drama there the last couple of years and it doesn’t seem like that drama has been calming down, maybe been getting worse,” Horner told TSN. “So I’m not surprised, any time in the middle of the season.
“But we’re head down on our championship. They’ve got Max [Verstappen] still knocking on the door, so we’ve got to pay attention to that.”
Horner was F1’s youngest team principal when he brought Red Bull into the championship 20 years ago. Brown believes it’s possible he could return elsewhere.
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“I think given his age and his history in motor racing, I’d be surprised if he didn’t show up somewhere in motor racing,” he said. “But I don’t know his other interests, whether he wants to go run a football team or what have you, so we’ll see.”
Red Bull’s decision to replace Horner followed a downturn in their performance over the past year. Max Verstappen has only won four times in the past year and rumours have suggested he could leave to join Mercedes.
McLaren has Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri on multi-year contracts. Brown described himself as an “interested spectator” to the speculation over Verstappen but insisted “I couldn’t be happier with Oscar and Lando.”
“I’m very happy with my driver line-up so I don’t really kind of spend any time on [that] other than what pops up on my phone.”
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