Christian Horner opens up on Red Bull F1 exit: “Perhaps it was perceived I had too much influence over the team”

Christian Horner has hinted that “it was perceived that I had too much influence over the team” which led to his departure as Red Bull Formula 1 team principal last year.

The former Red Bull boss oversaw the team’s transformation into the energy drinks-branded outfit and into two eras of F1 domination: firstly with Sebastian Vettel and four consecutive F1 world drivers’ and world constructors’ titles between 2010-13 and then with Max Verstappen with four world drivers’ championships and three world constructors’ crowns between 2021-24.

But amid an internal investigation over allegations of inappropriate behaviour and an appeal – both of which cleared Horner’s name – it set into action a fractious power struggle at Red Bull in 2024.

With high profile team members such as Adrian Newey and Jonathan Wheatley leaving and Red Bull’s results in decline going into 2025, Horner was sacked as team principal in July 2025.

In an exclusive interview with sister publication Autosport, Horner has opened up on what he felt led to his departure.

“I think the company just wanted to go in a different direction, or perhaps it was perceived I had too much influence over the team,” Horner said. “And, of course, life after Dietrich [Mateschitz] had passed was quite different within the group.”

Horner was chosen by Red Bull co-founder Dietrich Mateschitz to lead the transformation of the F1 team following the takeover of the Jaguar outfit, and was a close ally throughout their partnership.

Mateschitz’s death in October 2022 is widely considered to have started the power struggle at the Red Bull team, with the brand’s board, overseen by CEO Oliver Mintzlaff, looking to take more control over F1 operations and away from Horner’s remit.

Horner paid tribute to Mateschitz and the faith he put in him at Red Bull.

“He was Red Bull. All the significant decisions were going through him, he built that business from nothing in a great partnership with the Yoovidhya family,” Horner said, referring to Red Bull’s other co-owners alongside Mateschitz.

“Dietrich was passionate about racing, cars, he loved the drivers, he loved all forms of motorsport. When you look at the contribution he made, not just to Formula 1 but to rallying, to all the junior categories, there’s not a form of motorsport that you look at these days that doesn’t in some way have the sun and bull logo on a car or on a driver.

“It’s easy to underestimate what he actually has done for the world of motorsport, so inevitably when you lose a founder like that it leaves a void and it’s just different. He was very good to me, he gave me the chance, he believed in me and he gave me the freedom to operate the business and I’ll forever be grateful to him for that.”

It was this seismic change at the very top of the Red Bull empire that shook up the organisation and Horner felt it had an impact on his role at Red Bull F1 team principal.

“It was just different after that. Suddenly there was a lot more committee and corporately-driven [management] than perhaps a one-man founder and the decision-making process that we’d become accustomed to.”

You can watch ‘The Autosport Interview’ with Christian Horner in its entirety here.

Christian Horner book cover

Photo by: Uncredited

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