Why Horner is so successful: 'I have never been on a management training'

Christian Horner is the longest-serving team boss in Formula 1. The now 49-year-old Briton was appointed team boss at Red Bull Racing in early 2005 and in those more than 18 years he achieved great success at the Austrian racing stable. What's in it for him? Horner talks about it himself in conversation with The Financial Times.

Eleven world championships Horner captured with Red Bull, six in drivers and five in constructors. Only Toto Wolff was more successful than the Briton in the 21st century. Is it an advantage that Horner and Wolff both raced themselves? "I raced, Toto took part, and of course it gives you an insight to the emotions that the driver goes through and some of the challenges", Horner jokes, before continuing on a more serious son that it is indeed an advantage because you know what a driver needs to perform to the maximum.

This is mainly to do with confidence. "It’s quite a lonely place sitting in that cockpit and when you look out, you want to feel you have a team that believes in you, that they’ve got your back and that inspires confidence. I think for me that was the key thing that I took out of my driving time and having driven for good teams and not-so-good teams - it was all about the people in the end. I think like in any business it’s all about people and how they work together.”

Horner creates teams

Horner came out of International Formula 3000 with Arden, but decided to hang up his own racing helmet in 1998 and join the team's management. It was there that Horner gained his first experience, before leaving for Red Bull at the beginning of 2005. The big question is what makes Horner so successful and he tries to answer that himself.

“Personally I just enjoy working with people - trying to get the best out of them and working collectively as a team, setting clear goals and objectives. Just listening and trying to help them. I am not a qualified engineer, I am an ex-driver. I have never been on a management training course in my life and for me it’s about how you empower people, how you give them that confidence, how you give them clear guidance of what’s needed to work collectively as a group."