Red Bull has sacked CEO and team principal Christian Horner with immediate effect after two decades with the team. Horner has been in charge of the Anglo-Austrian team since 2005 when they took over Jaguar, leading them to six Constructors and eight Drivers’ Championships.
Laurent Mekies has been appointed as CEO of Red Bull Racing, stepping up from the Racing Bulls team. Mekies will be replaced at Racing Bulls by racing director Alan Permane.
Red Bull managing director Oliver Mintzlaff, said “We would like to thank Christian Horner for his exceptional work over the last 20 years.”
“With his tireless commitment, experience, expertise and innovative thinking, he has been instrumental in establishing Red Bull Racing as one of the most successful and attractive teams in Formula 1. Thank you for everything, Christian, and you will forever remain an important part of our team history.”
The announcement comes eighteen months after a KC-led investigation cleared Horner twice of “inappropriate behaviour” towards a female colleague. It comes after eighteen months of turbulence caused by the allegations, which have seen the team lose chief technical officer Adrian Newey to Aston Martin, sporting director Jonathan Wheatley to Sauber and head of strategy Will Courtenay to McLaren.
Horner was the longest-serving team principal and masterminded four championships for Sebastian Vettel and Max Verstappen. The team has however, struggled to fight McLaren since this time last season, and they are currently fourth in the constructors, with Verstappen third by seventy points off at the halfway point in the season.
His departure will further fuel speculation about Verstappen’s future, the four-time champion is currently under contract until 2028 but the drama around Horner and the drop in performance over the last year. The team has only won four races since last July.
The fallout of this could be wide as the team has lost its three most senior personnel in eighteen months, as well as friction between Horner and Verstappen’s father, former F1 driver Jos. Verstappen Sr, issued a warning following the allegations that the team would fall apart if Horner stayed in his role.
Red Bull is co-owned by the Mateschitz family, who sided with Verstappen and the Thai businessman Chalerm Yoovidhya, who sided with Horner in the row. They are also trying to build an engine with Ford for 2026.
The announcement is not a major surprise given the problems at Red Bull since the beginning of 2024, but it could have been down to a mixture of performance and the internal dramas. Red Bull is struggling with the car and that’s despite winning two races, but the timing maybe surprising given the reg changes in 2026.
This is likely to end the power struggles and frictions within the team over the last eighteen months.
