How the final weeks of Horner at Red Bull Racing unfolded

Almost exactly a month ago, GPblog first reported that the Horner era at Red Bull was coming to an end. This site had learned that the team principal had lost some of his power. Moreover, the Thai co-owner of Red Bull demanded performance, as Horner was clearly told. His unconditional support for Horner was gone. Perhaps that's why the Brit flirted with the Alpine team, to obtain a position there.

In the paddock, journalists partly scoffed at this story, as they had been whispered by Red Bull Racing - read the by now also departed head of communications Paul Smith - that Horner was really not going anywhere. In his press moment in Canada, Horner himself also debunked this story, which was nonetheless confirmed shortly after by Ralf Schumacher in his podcast.

While the PR machine did its work, behind the scenes, there was indeed increasingly serious contemplation of saying farewell to Horner. This departure gained momentum in the last week, also after this site managed to report that one of the conditions for Verstappen to stay with Red Bull beyond 2025 was that Horner's power needed to be further curtailed - albeit there was a preference for a definitive departure.

In the meantime, there were the disastrously unfolded Grand Prix weekends in Austria and Great Britain. In Silverstone, this site once again heard that a departure of Horner was almost inevitable. And indeed, on Monday, there was a crisis meeting between shareholders Chalerm Yoovidhya and Mark Mateschitz, and Oliver Mintzlaff (the managing director of Red Bull GmbH). 

The conclusion of this meeting was that Horner had to go, something that was communicated to him over the course of Tuesday. In the morning hours of Wednesday, the staff of Red Bull Racing was also informed, and Horner bid farewell to his former colleagues. Not long after, the news of the dismissal leaked, also to GPblog.

Not long after that, there also came the statement from Red Bull GmbH, which ended a long successful, but recently turbulent era in a few sentences.