Christian Horner has been sacked as team principal of the Red Bull Racing team, bringing an end to a two-decade stint at the helm of the Formula 1 squad.

This year, Horner had become the longest-serving team principal in the championship, having led Red Bull since the start of the 2005 season, when the energy drinks company took over Jaguar Racing.

The architect of Red Bull’s five drivers’ and six constructors’ titles, Horner had spent 20 years at the top, surviving politics, power shifts and, until now, a PR scandal.

Horner often played the role of the sport’s pantomime villain in Drive to Survive — sharp-tongued and unapologetically competitive.

His outspoken presence, particularly during Red Bull’s battles with Mercedes and Toto Wolff, made him a central character and helped frame much of the series’ drama through a lens of personal rivalry and psychological warfare.

However, a difficult 2025 season that has seen Max Verstappen drop out of contention for the championship has led to Horner and Red Bull parting ways halfway through the year.

Horner’s downfall has been dramatic and complex, particularly since last year’s text message scandal.

The rise before the fall

After guiding the team to four titles with Sebastian Vettel from 2010 to 2013, Horner steered Red Bull through the wilderness years of hybrid dominance before masterminding Max Verstappen’s championship-winning campaign in 2021.

That year was the real beginning of a second golden era for the Milton Keynes team.

In 2022, Red Bull delivered a commanding performance, Verstappen shattering the single-season win record with 15 victories, while the RB18 emerged as the class of the field, especially in the second half of the year.

In 2023, Red Bull elevated its dominance to unprecedented heights. The RB19 won 21 out of 22 races, with Verstappen claiming 19 of those victories — both all-time records.

The near-perfect season saw the team break multiple F1 records, finishing the year with more than double the points of its nearest competitor.

The success was not without hiccups, however, as the team’s breach of the 2021 cost cap became public in late 2022, leading to a fine and a wind tunnel penalty.

Horner downplayed it, but it marked the beginning of increased scrutiny of his leadership.

2024: The scandal that shook Red Bull

After the unprecedented dominance in 2022 and 2023, the start of 2024 marked the start of a very challenging period for both the team and Horner.

In February, reports emerged that Horner was under internal investigation over alleged inappropriate text messages sent to a female employee.

Red Bull GmbH, the parent company in Austria, launched a formal inquiry.

Despite Red Bull clearing Horner in March, leaks to the media continued, including screenshots of alleged messages.

The situation escalated when the content was widely circulated among team principals and media figures ahead of the Bahrain Grand Prix.

The internal split between Red Bull Racing and Red Bull GmbH, between Horner and Helmut Marko, became public.

Horner stayed put, reportedly backed by Red Bull Thailand and the Verstappen camp’s commercial interest in team stability, but the atmosphere at Milton Keynes was never the same.

Senior personnel were unsettled, and long-serving staff like Adrian Newey left.

On track, Red Bull faced significant aerodynamic and balance problems with its 2024 car, hindering Verstappen’s ability to maximise the car’s potential.

Additionally, Sergio Pérez struggled even further to adapt to a car that only Verstappen appeared to be able to drive competitively.

The Mexican failed to secure podiums for an extended period, which contributed to the team’s overall decline and his eventual exit before the end of his contract.

Red Bull went through a 10-race winless streak mid-season, and although Verstappen managed to secure his fourth consecutive crown, the team dropped to third in the constructors’ standings.

2025: The straw that broke the camel’s back

Despite the PR scandal and the performance decline, Horner survived 2024. However, in 2025 the team produced arguably the weakest car of the Verstappen era.

Plagued by unpredictable handling, the RB21 has exposed the technical fragility behind Red Bull’s previous dominance.

On track, Verstappen has managed only two wins in the first half of 2025 and already looks out of contention for the title, sitting 69 points behind leader Oscar Piastri.

Key personnel departures like Newey’s and Jonathan Wheatley’s have disrupted the technical and operational stability of the team, leading to gaps in expertise.

The team has also faced correlation problems between its simulation tools and real-world car behavior, making it difficult to trust development directions and fine-tune the car effectively.

Instability has also been an issue with its second driver, with neither Liam Lawson nor Yuki Tsunoda able to match Verstappen’s performance, further compounding the team’s struggles.

The combination of these factors has seen Red Bull fall behind rival McLaren – and often behind Mercedes and Ferrari too – with Verstappen left to salvage results in a car that is no longer the class of the field.

Despite being under contract with Red Bull until 2028, persistent rumors about Verstappen’s future have not helped Horner’s cause, leaving the team boss with few hiding places left.

The sweeping 2026 regulation changes will be a major test for Red Bull, as the team faces the unprecedented challenge of building both a new chassis and its first in-house power unit under radically changed technical rules.

Horner’s departure removes a steadying influence just as the team faces this unprecedented challenge, increasing the pressure on new the leadership to deliver and offer Verstappen the elements he needs to fight for the title once again.