Red Bull took a radical decision for Verstappen — and now the bill is coming due

Almost exactly a year ago, Horner received the news he never saw coming. Red Bull dismissed him in the days after the British Grand Prix as team principal of the outfit he had largely built up.

That decision by the Red Bull top brass, quietly orchestrated by CEO Oliver Mintzlaff and advisor Helmut Marko, followed months of internal power struggles within the team. On one side was the Horner camp, backed by a large part of the Red Bull Racing staff. Standing squarely opposite the Briton were Max Verstappen, his father Jos, and Helmut Marko.

Especially during the period when things weren’t going as hoped on the sporting front, tempers ran high both internally and externally. Verstappen even threatened to leave the team, and it became an open secret that Horner’s continued presence would be a reason for that. Red Bull GmbH's senior figures were determined to keep Verstappen at all costs and, after the race at Silverstone, openly took the Dutchman's side. Horner was the one to leave.

Secretly, Red Bull will have hoped that this would satisfy Verstappen enough for him to see out his contract until the end of 2028. But with all the smoke screens lifted again in 2026, Verstappen is once again questioning his future at Red Bull. Should he turn his back on the team, the conclusion would be that dismissing Horner a year ago was both unnecessary and the wrong choice. Red Bull Racing would be left in 2027 without its star driver and without the team boss who, outside the Verstappen camp, still had the backing of a majority of the staff.

Given the difficult decision Red Bull GmbH made for Verstappen a year ago, the Dutchman has a moral obligation to stay with the team for at least the next two seasons. It was for Max that Horner was fired. Leaving now does not feel fair. A contract extension beyond 2028 would even seem fitting, with Verstappen then saying: "I acknowledge this team’s rebuilding challenges, and I’m fully committed to them. I realise we might not fight for the title for a while, but we’re going to tackle this together.’

It would mirror Michael Schumacher’s scenario with Ferrari in the 1990s. The German left Benetton (a team in which he, incidentally, wielded all the power) for the Scuderia, knowing the team would need time to become champions. By accepting that challenge year after year, and not grumbling, Ferrari rose to the top. That’s the commitment Red Bull now needs from Verstappen.

Then sponsors stay on board, it becomes easier to poach technical leaders from elsewhere, and, most importantly, things remain calm internally. Calm is the most important breeding ground for success. After all the turmoil of recent years, including with Verstappen, that is exactly what Red Bull Racing needs.