wattChristian Horner was just in his mid-30s when he sat down for the first time at the Formula One team owners’ meeting in 2005 and was unexpectedly appointed as the head of the new Red Bull Racing team. A world full of legendary characters. Sir Frank Williams, McLaren’s Ron Dennis and Ferrari’s Jean Todt have spent their lives fighting and winning in an extremely complex, competitive and highly political environment.
Had Horner not been backed by a patron with power that surpassed all his opponents, he might have easily been eaten alive, like so many before him.
F1 boss Bernie Ecclestone has discovered his potential over the past decade. Emulating the choices Ecclestone himself had made in the 1950s, Horner recognized the limitations of his abilities as a racing driver and stepped out of the cockpit to pursue a career as a team manager and organizer.
Now, when the car Max Verstappen hopes to win a fourth consecutive drivers’ title is launched at a media conference scheduled for next Thursday at Red Bull headquarters, it’s his first chance since the team’s inception. After its creation, Horner will not host the show.
His survival as team leader appears to hinge on the outcome of a meeting Friday with independent lawyers who will review allegations of inappropriate and controlling behavior made against him by a female staffer, which Horner denies.
He’s been in fights before, but unlike this one, which took place 18 months after the death of team owner Dietrich Mateschitz, the Austrian energy drink billionaire, there were rumors that There are rifts at the top of the team, and last season’s dominance was reflected. A record 21 wins in 22 games.
Horner’s early success running his own Arden team led him to the F3000 series, one level below F1 and owned by Ecclestone at the time. When Horner’s driver won the championship three years in a row and he became a team representative, Ecclestone got to know him and perhaps recognized some of his own qualities.
When his team won a fourth consecutive F1 title with Sebastian Vettel, Horner told me: “I used to pester him. “When I felt the time was right to go into F1, he Very supportive. He initially pushed me toward Jordan, but it soon became apparent that it wasn’t going to be anything serious. Then Red Bull bought Jaguar.”
Mateschitz sees sports involving speed and risk, whether air racing or downhill skiing, as important promotional tools. Ecclestone was attracted by the idea that the wealth of such a company could be used by F1, leading him to the troubled Jaguar team, whose owner Ford breathed a sigh of relief and accepted a token $1 to get rid of it, and potential layoffs and closure costs.
When Ecclestone mentioned the name of a young man who might manage the team for him, Mateschitz was ready to take a chance. For Horner, it meant a sudden shift from managing 20 employees to controlling a business that then employed nearly 500 people (now about 1,700), starting with the need to boost morale.
Horner already knows Mateschitz’s compatriot and motorsport adviser Dr Helmut Marko, and their feud – which may also involve the current champion’s father Jos Verstappen – is said to have It started in the last few months.
Marco is a former driver who might have been a title contender had he not been hit by a flying rock during the 1972 Grand Prix. Before Marko joined Mateschitz to create the Red Bull Young Team, he and Horner competed against each other as F3000 team owners. Driver plans and he is ruthlessly prepared to eliminate those found to be defective.
“I’ve always had a very good relationship with Helmut,” Horner said, “even going back to when I started Arden Team and bought a used trailer from him. I had no idea who he was and I didn’t Know what he did. He was this guy from Graz and I almost dedicated my life savings to this used car shipping company. It was all done with a handshake. And then I went to his studio, I saw newspaper clippings of Austrian legends: Niki Lauda, Jochen Rindt… and Helmut Marko. I also guessed who he was.”
Once in charge, Horner went to great lengths to lure star designer Adrian Newey away from McLaren. Both were born in Warwickshire and attended the same prep school, 10 years apart in age. During the Monaco Grand Prix weekend, Newey accepted the youngster’s invitation to attend the premiere of the movie Red Bull was promoting, Superman: Rise Again. After dinner, they began discussing the possibility of moving the designer of the championship-winning cars for Williams and McLaren. Five years later, Vettel won the first of seven drivers’ and six constructors’ titles with Red Bull.
Once upon a time, the decision on Horner’s future rested with Mateschitz, perhaps influenced by the now-exited Ecclestone, but now that is less clear. Crucially, both Horner and Newey are believed to have “key man” clauses in their contracts, which would expire if the other leaves.
Newey is the most successful designer in F1 history, while Horner has proven particularly adept at promoting the game. He often appears at social events with his wife Jerry (formerly of the Spice Girls) and is always ready to deliver his well-crafted points to any microphone or laptop available, alongside Mercedes’ Toto Wall Alex Ferguson and Arsene Wenger often share the headlines for their hostile double act.
Like almost everyone in F1, Horner has made many enemies along the way, but perhaps more than most. Three weeks before the start of the Bahrain season, they will be awaiting the outcome of the lawyers’ deliberations with more interest than usual, and the potential impact on F1’s immediate future.
