Christian Horner has finally put a specific moment on the end of his 20 years at Red Bull. The evening after the 2025 British Grand Prix, he told The Athletic, a text landed summoning him to London the next day for what he was told would be a conversation about marketing initiatives.

When he walked in, Helmut Marko, Red Bull Group CEO Oliver Mintzlaff and the group’s head of HR were waiting.

“I didn’t have the inkling it was going to be dealt with so abruptly,” Horner told The Athletic.

He was informed the team wanted to go in a different direction, with no explanation initially offered. Only when he pressed did one come. According to his account to the outlet, he was told the operation had become “more Christian Horner Racing than Red Bull Racing.”

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124 wins, 14 world titles, one text

The verdict, in his telling, was about grip rather than results. Horner has rejected the idea that the 2024 workplace misconduct investigation, which he survived, played a part. His own ledger, as he laid it out to The Athletic, read 124 victories, 14 world championships and 287 podiums.

Red Bull released him from his operational duties on July 9, 2025, three days after Silverstone, and promoted Laurent Mekies from the sister Racing Bulls outfit. Marko, speaking separately, said the call had been Mintzlaff’s and that Horner had been thanked in the room for the 20 years and eight world championship titles he had helped deliver.

Mekies locked in through 2031

The door has since been bolted. Mekies signed an extension that runs through 2031 on October 14, with Mintzlaff crediting his “outstanding leadership.” Horner himself has stayed outside the paddock through 2026.

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