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It’s fair to say Red Bull is looking for a major change in its fortunes after a particularly difficult racing season: the energy drinks giant sacked long-time team principal Christian Horner over the weekend in a move that shocked the man himself, but wasn’t exactly unexpected.
After 20-odd years, multiple constructors’ championship wins, and several dominant seasons, Horner was told on Wednesday that he was out of a job.
Following months of flagging performance by the Red Bull’s machines leading the once dominant Max Verstappen to trail both McLaren drivers in this season’s standings, the brand’s inability to pick a second driver to comfortably compete alongside the four-time world champion, as well as the fallout of Horner’s own sexting scandal, the man at the top had simply run out of chances.
“I was informed by Red Bull that operationally I would no longer be involved with the business or the team moving forward from after this gathering,” he told Red Bull staff at the brand’s Milton Keynes factory. “That obviously came as a shock… Watching and being part of this team has been the biggest privilege in my life.”
He’s not the only person to be leaving the team, though. A number of engineers have exited Red Bull in the past few months after it was clear the team’s car was not up to snuff, and a number of head office staff have left alongside Horner—just much more quietly.
Horner has been replaced, effective immediately, by Laurent Mekies: former Ferrari racing director and team principal of Red Bull’s secondary Racing Bulls team.
What’s Next for Christian Horner?
Though Horner says he was “shocked” by the decision, he’s not exactly without opportunities elsewhere on the grid. There’s already buzz that Horner could end up heading up the Scuderia Ferrari—which would see him work with former Red Bull rival Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc. Hamilton and Horner have locked horns in the past, though, so it’s not exactly clear if the pair would or could work together harmoniously.
It’s more likely, pundits say, that Horner could end up at the French racing side Alpine, a team in pretty desperate need of fresh blood at the top end. Plus, with both Audi and Cadillac entering the fray in the 2026 F1 season, an experienced team leader such as Horner could easily find a home at a relatively new team keen to make an impact.
What he’ll actually do next, though, is so far very much an unknown. Horner has largely gone to ground following the very public sacking, and while there are plenty of potential paths forward, he’s got quite a bit of time to figure out what he’ll do next. Oh, and he’ll reportedly get a tidy £60 million (AUD$123 million) payout as part of the exit.
What’s Next for Max Verstappen?
More pressing for Red Bull, though, is whether its key driver, Max Verstappen, will stay on board. While Max’s father, Jos Verstappen, has been critical of Horner in the past, Max himself is likely more frustrated at the engineering leadership at Red Bull more broadly—Horner has fallen on the sword, but it takes more than just a team lead to build a car.
It’s become clear throughout the 2025 season that Red Bull’s car isn’t up to the standard of what Verstappen needs to properly compete, and with the next season requiring another major rework of the vehicles on the track, it’s anyone’s guess as to how Verstappen is feeling about Red Bull’s chances.
Plus, on-track rivals Mercedes have been openly courting Verstappen for some time to fill the hole left by Hamilton’s exit at the beginning of the 2025 season, while rumours also suggest he might be looking to Aston Martin.
While he’s an aggressive driver on the track, Verstappen has been incredibly loyal to Red Bull throughout his time in the sport. Whether that loyalty will hold true in the coming years isn’t clear yet, but it’s likely the Dutchman will spend at least one more year at Red Bull to scope out his options as the dust settles on what is gearing up to be an explosive 2026 season.
What’s Next for Red Bull Racing?
It’s becoming clear that next year is going to serve as a reset for the Red Bull Racing team in the hopes that it can regain some of its former glory. The goal for every team on the track, at the end of the day, is to win: you don’t make money in F1 by taking up space in the middle of the pack.
The team has, however, been bleeding engineering talent for the past few years. In early 2024, Red Bull’s chief engineer Adrian Newey announced he’d be stepping away from the team after helping build the brand’s championship-winning cars. Newey eventually announced he’d be heading to Aston Martin ahead of the 2026 season, and in the year since he exited several more of the team’s engineering talent have left.
Chief mechanic Lee Stevenson also announced he’d be exiting the team in March 2024, leaving the Red Bull team with the unenviable goal of replacing its engineering and mechanical leadership at the same time. Stevenson headed to Sauber’s Stake F1 Team Kick, taking up the role of chief mechanic.
A little over one year later, with Horner gone too, it’s clear Red Bull is heading in a completely new direction. The leadership team that has driven the brand to several world championships is gone, and the hunt is on to figure out how to bring Red Bull back to a position of dominance as part of 2026’s grid reset.
With construction regulation changes forcing every team on the track to re-engineer their vehicles for the coming season, there’d be a lot of pressure on Red Bull’s engineers to build something special to put Verstappen back on a podium. Assuming he stays on side, of course.
One thing’s for sure: the next season of Drive to Survive is going to be peak.
