Horner dismisses Mekies effect on Red Bull revival: 'It would have played out the same way'

The former team principal and CEO of the Milton Keynes-based team returned to the Formula 1 paddock for the first time since his dismissal a year ago at Silverstone. Since then, he had largely stayed out of the spotlight, aside from occasional appearances in the MotoGP paddock and a handful of brief interviews.

Following his departure from Red Bull last year, the team, under the leadership of Laurent Mekies, began a rapid resurgence that turned into a title fight with McLaren lasting until the final race, despite Verstappen having fallen as many as 104 points behind the championship leader after Zandvoort.

In an interview with The Times, Horner said that meaningful changes in Formula 1 typically take between nine and 12 months to have an impact, meaning last season's turnaround would have unfolded in the same way regardless of his departure. He added that his legacy should be judged on what he achieved during his time in charge, stressing that he is satisfied with everything he accomplished and is not seeking recognition.

In the same interview, the Brit said he was immensely proud of the progress made by the Red Bull Powertrains project, which he had played a key role in launching, highlighting how it has developed into what is now widely regarded as Formula 1's benchmark power unit. He pointed to the achievement of building a competitive engine operation from scratch in just a few years, despite having almost no initial experience within the team.

He also praised the contribution of Ford and ExxonMobil, stressing that the project grew from an almost empty facility into a fully operational engine division in record time. Horner noted that the factory was built within months, the first engine was running little more than a year later, and hundreds of employees were recruited, including many experienced engineers from Mercedes HPP.

“That relationship with Ford, the fuel ExxonMobil have contributed, that was a bubble-wrap factory five years ago. There was one person that had a little bit of experience at Cosworth, and that was all that team had. Within 55 weeks we built a factory, within 14 months we had an engine up and running, 650 people were recruited into that business, and over 200 of them came out of Mercedes Benz or HPP.”