Bernie Ecclestone Unloads on Christian Horner After Red Bull Canning

Newsweek

13 hours ago

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Former Formula 1 boss Bernie Ecclestone unloaded on former Red Bull team principal Christian Horner after the 51-year-old was fired.
Horner spent more than 20 years at Red Bull Racing - constructing one of the most successful race teams in F1 history.
He managed to win several championships and led a team that constructed the sport's fastest cars.
While the on-track record carries few blemishes, there was some drama off the track in the Horner era.
Red Bull Racing Team Principal Christian Horner poses for a photo with Bernie Ecclestone on the grid during the Sprint ahead of the F1 Grand Prix of Brazil at Autodromo Jose Carlos Pace on November...
Red Bull Racing Team Principal Christian Horner poses for a photo with Bernie Ecclestone on the grid during the Sprint ahead of the F1 Grand Prix of Brazil at Autodromo Jose Carlos Pace on November 12, 2022 in Sao Paulo, Brazil. More
Photo byThe biggest scandal centered around Horner allegedly displaying inappropriate behavior against a female Red Bull employee.
In an interview with The Telegraph, Ecclestone blasted Horner for his alleged involvement in the scandal.
"This business that he got involved with 18 months ago, he was just an idiot," Ecclestone said.
"He was a 50-year-old who thought he was 20, thought he was one of the boys."
An independent investigation from Red Bull cleared him of wrongdoing, but the scars from the controversy reportedly remained at the team.
According to reports, the inner circle of driver Max Verstappen lobbied the Red Bull board to move on from Horner.
There were other parties also involved in an internal battle, but he seemingly wrestled control of the situation and remained in power.
In the end, Horner lost out and was removed from the team that he built.
Ecclestone believes that senior officials eventually got fed up with the power that Horner accumulated.
"It would probably have been better if they had said, 'Come in, Christian, sit down,'" he said.
"But the bottom line is that there are people there who thought he was getting away with things, that he was acting as if it was not the Red Bull Ring, but the Christian Horner Ring.
"He got away with so many things. And all the time you're delivering, people close their eyes. But when you stop delivering, people start looking. One or two begin thinking, 'Well, I could do a better job."
Horner's power grabs eventually concentrated all of the responsibility on him. When he won, the team principal was celebrated.
But as soon as the champagne stopped flowing, all of the fingers in Red Bull pointed at one man.
"You get very few executives who can do everything, from engineering to public relations," Ecclestone says.
"He had been running the company the way he thought it should be run. For a long time, people were prepared to say, 'OK, fair enough, he's getting the job done.'
"But as soon as you go off a little bit, people look and say, 'Hang on.' Christian won a lot of championships. He was used to winning. So, it's not easy when you're not winning – and when you know that it's not entirely your fault."
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