Brundle sees 'challenges' for Red Bull if Horner departs F1 team

Will Christian Horner be on the pit wall as Red Bull Racing team boss at the Bahrain Grand Prix on Sunday, or will the Brit watch the race as an unemployed man? A decision on whether or not Horner will stay on is likely to follow shortly, at least before the start of the opening race. In the event that Horner is found guilty of inappropriate behaviour, Red Bull Racing will face "challenges", believes Martin Brundle.

The story is well known by now: Horner's job is in jeopardy after an employee filed a complaint for alleged inappropriate behaviour at parent company Red Bull. Horner strongly denies the allegations. Red Bull are reportedly in the final stages of deciding in Austria whether Horner is guilty.

Martin Brundle, former F1 driver and now Sky Sports analyst, suspects that a forced departure of Horner would create a power vacuum at Red Bull. "Obviously, if you take Christian out of that loop, then a vacuum is always filled with other things, isn’t it?" Brundle told the UK pay-TV channel.

"And whether that would have the same effect [as Mateschitz’s passing,] but they’ve got momentum and they’ve got [Max] Verstappen. So I wouldn’t be too worried about their immediate performance. But down the road, you’d have to say that that will create some challenges," Brundle said.

After Mateschitz's death, an internal struggle for power within Red Bull emerged. Since then, the place has been unsettled a few times. "I think the problem Red Bull have is that Dietrich Mateschitz was the final arbiter of any key decision," Brundle cited this as the cause.