End of the Horner Era? Team Principal Sidelined at Red Bull

For Chalerm Yoovidhya, enough is enough, as GPblog has learned. The Thai co-owner of Red Bull GmbH (and thus co-owner of Red Bull Racing) has unconditionally supported Horner for a long time, but that is now over. Yoovidhya has let Horner know that performance is required, or else...

Yes, what else? It increasingly appears that Horner's role within the racing team of Max Verstappen and Yuki Tsunoda is coming to an end. In a team where the mood has dropped well below freezing point, Horner has been the centre of controversy for more than a year, especially during times of poor sporting performance, frustrations about him get to the surface.

Thus, the lawsuit still hanging over Horner by a former employee remains a Damocles' sword over him and Red Bull. Not without reason does the Brit try to prevent the accusation of transgressive behaviour from being fought out in court. That would be damaging to the racing team and especially to Horner personally.

Moreover, within Red Bull Racing, no one has forgotten how Horner tried to oust Helmut Marko on his own a year ago. That attempt failed because Max Verstappen said: 'If Helmut goes, I go.' Losing his star driver was something Horner could not afford.

If the sporting performance of Red Bull Racing were absolutely top right now, there would probably be less internal unrest and around Horner's personality. But the problem for Horner: it's not going well, with a technical department that still has no clue how to solve the major problems with the RB21.

Internally, measures have been taken to limit Horner's power. The team principal is no longer allowed to sign contracts with drivers; only Helmut Marko and Oliver Mintzlaff (managing director of Red Bull GmbH) can do that.

Until recently, Horner was allowed to do so, but that privilege has been revoked after the debacle with Sergio Perez. Perez was given a new contract for 2025 by Horner, but that contract ultimately had to be bought out after Red Bull decided not to continue with Perez. This cost the company a whopping 18 millions!

Obviously, Horner also realises that he is running out of time at Red Bull. Thus, the Brit himself leaked to the German press that Ferrari had shown interest in his services. In the distant past, this was indeed the case, but not recently.

Right now, Horner is openly flirting with Flavio Briatore, the advisor of Alpine who is looking for a successor to the recently resigned Oliver Oakes. Briatore himself has never been shy of some controversy, so the baggage that Horner would bring would not be a problem for the Italian. For Horner, a move to Alpine would also be attractive if he could get a share of the stakes at the French team.

That Horner is thinking about his future in the coming weeks is understandable. It is crucial for him to find shelter elsewhere as soon as possible, as there is therefore a risk that so much mess will be uncovered through the likely lawsuit with his former assistant that no one in Formula 1 will want to deal with him afterwards.