Christian Horner: ‘Not all teams act that way. You don’t see the same brutality as when I left’
Christian Horner should be in steamy Singapore, preparing for another grand prix victory, but here he is, at home on an autumnal morning in genteel Highgate as his wife, Geri Halliwell-Horner, welcomes me with a cheerful hug. Horner smiles as the former Spice Girl produces an impressive imitation of my South African accent which echoes her old headteacher at Watford Girls.
After the most controversial man in the recent history of Formula One says hello, Halliwell-Horner and I discuss the fact that my two daughters also went to her school and that one of their history textbooks had her name printed on the inside page – while the ex-Ginger Spice talks about gritty old Watford, grammar school education and Nelson Mandela.
I joke that it feels like I’m interviewing Halliwell-Horner instead of Horner. Everyone laughs but I will soon ask Horner about the impact on his marriage in 2024 when an investigation was carried out into allegations he had sent “hundreds” of inappropriate texts and photographs to a female employee when Red Bull’s team principal. The woman was apparently “upset, angry, scared, intimidated and lonely” while the tabloids speculated that Halliwell-Horner was “furious”.
Horner was exonerated by two independent investigations but other hurtful circumstances then surrounded his sudden departure from Red Bull in July 2025. The team has struggled since then but, nine days ago, at the Bahrain Grand Prix, Max Verstappen won Red Bull’s first race with an engine built entirely by the team. Verstappen then won again in Singapore this past Sunday. That feat of engineering had been conceived and instigated by Horner near the end of his remarkable 20 years at Red Bull.
When Halliwell-Horner disappears after a final hug, Horner is amiable yet careful. However, the 52-year-old admits his distress after he was forced out: “It felt particularly brutal and sad to finish in that manner. But I now have a reasonable relationship with Oliver Mintzlaff [the CEO of corporate projects at Red Bull]. He rang the other day and thanked me for all I’d done for the engine.”
His dismissal, Horner reiterates, “was painful. Very painful. I didn’t really process it till a month later because, in the immediate aftermath, I focused on supporting my daughter [Olivia] through a hideous period.”
Horner and his former partner, Beverley Allen, became parents to Olivia in 2013. After they separated, he and Allen remained on good terms and so grief, following her death from eye cancer, framed his demise at Red Bull. As he recalls that difficult period, he pays fleeting tribute to his arch-rival, Toto Wolff, the head of Mercedes, who has addressed his battle with depression.
“Toto was very brave to talk openly about such a factor for people our age. I hadn’t experienced those issues but I had an appreciation during this period of how people could [suffer]. The identity of many middle-aged guys is through their work. Suddenly you have that stripped and taken from you. Who are you? What are you? What is your purpose? You either curl up into a ball or brush yourself down and get up.”
Horner, who arrived in 2005 as the youngest team principal in F1 history, adds: “When I started at Red Bull, there were under 400 people. When I left, there was 2,200. I poured my heart and soul into that business and convinced people to leave other teams for Red Bull. I never had a big turnover in staff because there was tremendous loyalty over a long period. The startup engine business had been founded in 2021 and I was about to get it on the track when I left. I felt great sadness in not seeing that engine in a car.”
He broke down briefly while telling staff of his fate. “It was very strange because that group became your extended family. So the tears on grown men’s faces was deeply moving.”
In his new book, which provides a thorough overview of his career, Horner describes the day he replaced Tony Purnell, his predecessor, in 2005: “Formula One is ruthless, I thought, watching from my car as Tony and Dave Pitchforth, their just-fired managing director, carried glum expressions and cardboard boxes stuffed with personal belongings … when I was eventually shown to my office, it resembled a crime scene. A barely drunk cup of coffee had been abandoned on the desk. Through the walls, I heard Tony’s PA sobbing.”
Horner says now: “History repeats itself. Not all teams act in that way. A lot of teams haven’t delivered over the years but you don’t see the same brutality as when I left. We had pole position at the previous race.”
At last year’s British Grand Prix, just before Horner’s sacking, Verstappen was leading when “the rain came”.
Horner also mentions his “relief” at leaving. “The last two years had been pretty tough but it was a particularly sensitive time, with the bereavement of my daughter’s mum the previous week. I had an 11-year-old child grieving her mother. Nothing was more important than that.”
There had been a power struggle at Red Bull following the death in 2022 of Dietrich Mateschitz, the company’s billionaire founder who always backed Horner. Both Helmut Marko, a key consultant, and Jos Verstappen, Max’s father, seemed keen to undermine Horner. “Helmut could be blunt and I was disappointed he’d stayed as a guest of our family two days before [Horner’s sacking] with no indication this was coming,” Horner reveals.
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Source: www.theguardian.com — article syndicated from the publisher’s feed; all rights remain with the original publisher.