Red Bull top man reveals harsh mixed feelings post Christian Horner sacking

12:11, 25 Jul

byTim Kraaij

The dismissal of Christian Horner also came as a big shock to Red Bull Racing's Chief Engineer, Paul Monaghan. The Briton told GPblog among others how the team now hopes to respond.

The Belgian Grand Prix is the first GP in Red Bull Racing history without Christian Horner as team principal of the Austrian racing stable. The Brit was fired after twenty years of service and replaced by Laurent Mekies.

During the regular ‘tech talks’ for written media, Red Bull was tasked to talk about the updates on the RB21. Of course, it was also about the updates, but Monaghan knew that Horner's situation would also be discussed and had to laugh when the first question came.

It's been a little more than two weeks since Horner was dismissed

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What did Monaghan think of Horner's dismissal?

''To tell you the truth: it was a shock to me. Sad. Christian's put a large chunk of his working life into the team, we've enjoyed a huge amount of success, perhaps unwarranted to some views, whatever.''

"Anyway, what is done is done and so thank you to Christian for everything he did personally for me and for this team. Laurent has got a difficult situation to be dropped in.''

''I've known him for many years, very personable, smart chap. So now it's up to us to pull together as a team because there are 9 other teams can't wait to fight us.''

''So if we're going to stand up, then we have to stand as a team. We are preparing to stand as a team. We are preparing to stand as a team. Le Mans is doing his utmost to ensure that that is what we are aiming to do and we will do so.''