Christian Horner has returned to the most contested moment of his twenty years in the Red Bull garage, telling the story in his new memoir and in interviews around its release.
“It wasn’t our fault but we’re in a position where we’ve got this one lap to have a crack at it, and if anyone is going to deliver you on a lap like that, it’s Max. What happened, happened,” Horner writes in Drive, according to Crash.
The former Red Bull team principal and chief executive was removed from his roles in July 2025 and reached a settlement with the Austrian company that September. Companies House filings show he received upwards of £76m in combined compensation for loss of office, remuneration and pension contributions, as reported by The Independent.
Pressure on the race director
For the first time outside the political constraints of a serving team boss, Horner has set out in detail what he said to then race director Michael Masi over the pit-wall radio during the final laps at Yas Marina.
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“I decided to apply some more pressure on race control. ‘Come on, Michael, we need to get this race going; why aren’t we getting these lapped cars out the way?’” Horner writes in the same book.
Masi then allowed the five cars sitting between Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton to unlap on the final tour, a departure from standard practice. Verstappen, on fresher tyres, passed Hamilton on the last lap to take the championship.
‘Lewis was the faster car on the day’
The sting in Horner’s account is his concession on pace. Speaking on the High Performance podcast, via PlanetF1, the former Red Bull boss acknowledged that Hamilton had controlled the race before the late safety car.
“Lewis was the faster car on the day. He was driving away from Max, and for 80 percent of the race,” Horner told the podcast.
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He went further than he ever did while running Red Bull, acknowledging to the same podcast that any Hamilton supporter has every right to feel robbed by the outcome, and crediting the Briton for shaking Verstappen’s hand on the grid in what Horner called a horrendous moment.
Fifteen months out of the paddock
Horner has been out of the Formula 1 paddock since Silverstone in July 2025, and his settlement allows him to return in any capacity from spring 2026. He has been linked with Ferrari, Alpine and Aston Martin, and with a stake in a prospective twelfth team on the grid, according to reporting carried by Yahoo Sports.
Drive was published by Transworld on 22 October 2026. Horner narrates the audiobook himself.
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