Red Bull fires Horner after 20 years as team principal – Mekies takes his place

Red Bull has fired Christian Horner from his position as team principal, having headed their multiple championship-winning Formula 1 operation for 20 years.

“We thank him for his tireless and exceptional work,” said Red Bull in a statement. “He has been instrumental in building this team into one of the most successful in F1, with eight drivers’ championships and six constructors’ championships.”

“Thank you for everything Christian, you will forever remain an important part of our team’s history,” it concluded.

Horner’s replacement is Laurent Mekies, who until now was in charge of Red Bull’s second Formula 1 team, Racing Bulls. Alan Permane, previously racing director at Racing Bulls, has taken over as team principal.

Mekies will become the first person to lead Red Bull other than Horner. He brought the team into F1 in 2005 after Dietrich Mateschitz’s soft drink company bought the struggling Jaguar F1 team from Ford.

Under Horner the team became a dominant, championship-winning force within a few years. A key factor in their success was the successful courting of star designer Adrian Newey, by Horner and driver David Coulthard.

Red Bull also invested heavily in its junior driver programme. The organisation took the unprecedented step of buying a second Formula 1 team, rebranding the ailing Minardi team as ‘Toro Rosso’ (Italian for ‘Red Bull’). This became a hothouse for young Red Bull drivers.

Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and

Foremost among them was Sebastian Vettel, who scored the first victories for Toro Rosso and Red Bull respectively in 2008 and 2009. In 2010 he clinched the first of four consecutive drivers’ championship titles, while Red Bull swept the constructors’ championships in all four seasons.

Red Bull’s engine supplier Renault failed to provide a competitive power unit when Formula 1’s regulations changed in 2014, and the team’s title-winning days were put on hold. Horner was unable to prevent Vettel defecting to rivals Ferrari, and he laboured in vain to persuade Renault to put more money into their F1 project.

However he successfully saw off rival bids for Newey, and when Red Bull found a new engine supplier in Honda they became a potent force once more. By now the team had a new white-hot junior talent on its hands in Max Verstappen, and in 2021 they broke Mercedes’ domination. While the three-pointed star took its eighth consecutive constructors’ championship title, Verstappen denied Lewis Hamilton the drivers’ crown in a controversial finale at Yas Marina.

This was the beginning of another period of Red Bull domination. Verstappen won four championships in a row and Red Bull scored back-to-back teams’ titles in 2022 and 2023. The latter was an especially crushing performance which saw Red Bull win all bar one of the 22 rounds.

However there were signs of trouble as 2024 began. Horner faced accusations of inappropriate behaviour from a staff member, and though he was cleared following two internal investigations, it had a destabilising effect on the team.

A succession of senior staff members left, including Newey, who later joined Aston Martin’s F1 project. The team’s form on-track began to suffer and in the second half of the year Verstappen had to fight a rearguard action to hold onto his points lead.

Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and

As 2025 began, Red Bull had been decisively overtaken by McLaren. As the team struggled to give Verstappen a car which handled to his liking, the performance of their second entry deteriorated shockingly. Horner released Sergio Perez at the end of 2024, but gave up on his replacement Liam Lawson after just two rounds, then ushered Yuki Tsunoda in his place to little discernible improvement.

Meanwhile the team faced the looming dilemma of the loss of its Honda-designed power units. Horner responded to this by committing Red Bull to the enormously expensive task of producing its own F1 power unit.

But despite securing the support of Ford to work on its electrical systems, doubt surrounding the project has contributed to speculation Verstappen was keen to move elsewhere. Reports have also claimed rising friction between Horner and the Verstappen camp, particularly the driver’s father, former F1 driver Jos Verstappen.

Regardless of how Horner’s exit came about, the departure of F1’s longest-serving team principal after two decades in the role is the end of an era.

Formula 1

• Horner says he leaves Red Bull “with a heavy heart” in first statement since shock exit
• Does Horner’s exit give Verstappen a reason to stay at Red Bull – or prove he’ll go?
• Ferrari had no GPS data from Hamilton’s car throughout British Grand Prix
• “The risk for us is a Safety Car”: Why Norris’s win was in danger for six laps
• Hulkenberg overruled race engineer twice in first nine laps on way to podium

Browse all Formula 1 articles