Horner says Red Bull's push for more head-office control preceded his exit

Christian Horner says a push to bring more control back to Red Bull’s head office marked a change in the organisation before his departure in July 2025. He described the timing of his exit as “pretty abrupt and quite brutal”, but said he had already sensed that things were changing.

Speaking on stage with CBS News anchor Errol Barnett at the Autosport Business Exchange in New York, Horner placed that change in the context of Red Bull’s evolution after founder Dietrich Mateschitz died at the end of 2022. Mateschitz, he said, had been the driving force behind the company and had made its major decisions.

Horner said the group’s evolution brought a drive to return more control to the head office, a different arrangement from the autonomy Red Bull Racing had enjoyed in Milton Keynes. He said he did not see one approach as right and the other wrong: it was simply a different path. That autonomy, he added, had enabled the team’s success.

Red Bull removed Horner as CEO and team principal in July 2025 after 20 years in the job, replacing him with Laurent Mekies. Under Horner, Red Bull won six constructors’ championships—in 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2022 and 2023—and eight drivers’ championships across 2010–13 and 2021–24. Sebastian Vettel and Max Verstappen each became four-time champions with the team.

Looking back, Horner said he was proud of what he had achieved at Red Bull and felt privileged to have worked with its drivers and the people around the team.