More than a year on, the former Red Bull team principal says the manner of the sacking still stings.
“It felt particularly brutal and sad to finish in that manner,” Christian Horner told The Guardian’s Donald McRae.
“It was painful. Very painful. I didn’t really process it till a month later…”
Horner, 52, was dismissed on 8 July 2025, two days after the British Grand Prix, where Max Verstappen had taken pole for Red Bull. He had held the role of team principal since the team’s first grand prix in 2005, delivering six constructors’ championships and eight drivers’ titles.
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The shift that followed Mateschitz’s death
Horner points to one event as the turning point: the death of Red Bull founder Dietrich Mateschitz on 22 October 2022.
For most of Horner’s time in charge, Mateschitz had been a hands-off patron who gave him near-total autonomy to run the team. Motor Sport Magazine’s Mark Hughes wrote that after the founder was gone, Horner was left “having to fight his corner” against a corporate structure that had previously been happy to let him operate without political interference.
Horner never got a formal explanation for his sacking.
“I wasn’t really given a reason,” he said.
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His own best guess: “I think it was a feeling there was too much control in my hands.”
“The last two years had been pretty tough but it was a particularly sensitive time…”
Panic attacks and the question of identity
Horner also disclosed that losing the job triggered panic attacks and a wider reckoning with his sense of self.
“The identity of many middle-aged guys is through their work. Suddenly you have that stripped and taken from you. Who are you?” he said.
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“I didn’t know what it was. You suddenly feel dizzy and conscious of your breathing.”
Horner’s dismissal came days after his former partner, Beverley Allen, the mother of his daughter Olivia, had died of cancer. He has said he spent the immediate aftermath of the sacking supporting his daughter rather than processing his own exit.
He contrasts the manner of his departure with how other paddock bosses have been removed.
“Not all teams act in that way. A lot of teams haven’t delivered over the years but you don’t see the same brutality as when I left.”
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Sources: – [2025 British Grand Prix qualifying, Verstappen pole](https://www.silverstone.co.uk/news/2025-british-grand-prix-f1-qualifying-results-verstappen-storms-pole-support-category-sprint) – [Christian Horner Guardian interview via AOL](https://www.aol.co.uk/articles/christian-horner-not-teams-act-180001000.html) – [Motor Sport Magazine, Mateschitz’s death and Horner’s exit](https://www.motorsportmagazine.com/articles/single-seaters/f1/how-dietrich-mateschitzs-death-set-christian-horner-on-road-to-red-bull-f1-exit/)Read also: Bernardo Silva has ‘vanished’ from Real Madrid’s line-up: “He has to improve”
