Former Red Bull driver can’t believe Horner has been sacked

11:54, 24 Jul

Updated: 15:27, 24 Jul

byKada Sarkozi

For the first time ever, at the Belgian Grand Prix, Red Bull Racing will have a team principal not named Christian Horner. The Briton was dismissed after the weekend in Silverstone. His former driver Alex Albon also reacted to this news.

After making his F1 debut in Toro Rosso in 2019, Albon was already promoted to Red Bull Racing over the course of that season. He was replaced by Sergio Perez after the 2020 campaign.

Answering GPblog's question in Belgium whether the decision was surprising for him, he said: "Yes it was. I think obviously someone who's helped me a lot in my long career. Yeah, obviously he's been in the sport for a long time with a lot of success. So you could say he's built that team up so to see him go obviously is a... well it's the first time."

Why could Horner be successful at Red Bull?

Despite the current challenging period, Horner could also celebrating many championships with the Austrian outfit. Albon himself could also step on the podium on two occasions with the team.

"I obviously quite joined late to the Christian Horner 'kind of era', let's say. So on my side, it was clear that he had his people and he brought everyone up together."

"I think that there was a lot of longstanding members at Red Bull who were there for a long time and still are to this day as well. Seemed to have a good knack for finding the right people and then building a good circle around and they seem to chip away at it and very quickly get to the top and I guess that's a part of its success," he concluded.

This weekend, for the first time, Laurent Mekies will be the team principal in charge. The Frenchman got promoted from Racing Bulls. Rumours suggest this quick transition also caught the attention of the FIA.