The Red Bull team announced on Wednesday morning that Christian Horner has been dismissed with immediate effect. The team boss had been at the helm in Milton Keynes for twenty years, but was let go after a series of disappointing results in recent races. Driver and analyst Tom Coronel is surprised that Horner has been fired at this point in time. According to him, a dismissal in the middle of the season indicates internal panic.
“I’m surprised, especially because he (Horner, ed.) was fired in the middle of the season,” Tom Coronel responded. “Something must have happened that caused some panic. Of course, if you look at Yuki Tsunoda, you see that Red Bull is not keeping up. But they have won championships over the past four years. Just last weekend they were on pole position. So something must have happened in the meantime.”
2026
According to Coronel, Horner’s departure may be related to the development of the car for 2026. “Ninety percent of what is happening in the Red Bull factory now is about next year,” he explained. “So the fact that he is leaving now means that they as a team have started something they can’t finish. That tells me something is not going well. There must have been a fire.” Regarding Christian Horner’s legacy, Coronel says he ‘can’t be negative’. “A can manufacturer becoming world champion eight times – that’s unheard of,” he continued. “And Christian Horner was at the helm.”
The question is whether the departure of the 51-year-old Brit will also affect Max Verstappen‘s performance. “A team boss mainly needs to ensure that the organization runs smoothly, so my feeling is that Verstappen will not be influenced by this,” Coronel concluded. “He is simply focused on winning races and probably sees this as even more noise.” Will this have consequences for a possible transfer? “Only Verstappen knows that.”
