Max Verstappen reacts to Christian Horner's Red Bull F1 exit

“From my first race win, to four world championships, we have shared incredible successes,” said Verstappen in a statement on social media.

“Winning memorable races and breaking countless records. Thank you for everything, Christian!”

In the wake of the misconduct controversy at the beginning of 2024, Verstappen’s father Jos said Horner’s position was untenable.

The Verstappens also apparently had reservations about the direction of the team following the departures of tech chief Adrian Newey and sporting director Jonathan Wheatley in the wake of the scandal.

Now, with Red Bull fourth in the championship and only Verstappen apparently able to get lap time out of its F1 car, the team has shown Horner the door.

Meanwhile, others in the F1 paddock have reacted to the news too.

“It is not completely out of the blue, given the problems in the team,” broadcaster and former F1 driver Martin Brundle told Sky Sports News.

“I’m quite sad about it. I consider Christian a friend and he’s done an incredible job for 20 years,”

“He’s won an awful lot of races and world championships for drivers and the team. He took it from what was the Stewart team and Jaguar, into a massive campus in Milton Keynes and [had] an awful lot of success and a huge trophy cabinet.

“It’s not too difficult to feel in the F1 paddock and to observe and hear that things were not particularly rosy.”

Brundle’s colleague and Motor Sport columnist Karun Chandhok says Horner has paid a price for the direction he’s led Red Bull in.

“It is a fact that the team has allowed itself to get into a position where Max Verstappen is so powerful that it has become effectively a one-car team,” he said. “The period of Red Bull dominance ended as McLaren stepped up and effectively they have only had Max fighting for them.”

“Christian Horner has to take some responsibility for that and I suspect that the Red Bull executives have looked at the team performance with the second car coming last at the last race and not finishing the previous race and made a decision. There are a lot of rumours flying about Max’s future and I think Red Bull have thought to themselves, ‘if we lose Max then where are we as a team?’”