Red Bull is grappling with how to pay out the remaining five-and-a-half years of Christian Horner’s contract.
According to new reports out of the UK on Friday, those talks could be worth as much as A$125 million.
The news comes as details leaked over the shocking, and emotional 12-hour period that ended his reign
When it was all said and done, every awkward and torturous second finally out of the way, the entire floor of Red Bull workers erupted with sustained applause for the man who led them for two decades.
Some reports place the length of that ovation for now-sacked Red Bull Racing boss Christian Horner at five minutes with the employees, who three years ago grieved the death of company founder Dietrich Mateschitz, suddenly plunged into a different type of grief.
But it was grief all the same, for Red Bull Racing has been changed forever in a way that remains to be seen.
Unceremoniously, too. Horner has offered few words publicly since news broke of his abrupt departure. The few words he has used, however, have made it abundantly clear that he was blindsided by the bombshell decision.
His farewell speech at Milton Keynes, which leaked hours after Red Bull confirmed the sacking, speak to this fact.
For a power figure as composed, savvy and influential as Horner, the rattled and emotional way in which he addressed the floor said everything about how swift, brutal, and unexpected his sacking was.
As did his words: “It came as a shock to myself”.
Horner bumbled his way through the rest of the address, saying it was the “biggest privilege” of his life to see Red Bull Racing rise like a phoenix from the ashes of Stewart and Jaguar Racing to become an F1 powerhouse.
It was at this point that Horner was forced to pause and compose himself as he choked back tears.
“I have fought hard, I’ve done my best, I’ve put in a big shift and it now comes to a close,” he said.
It’s hard to recall a more dramatic sacking in modern F1 history.
Horner’s speech offered little detail outside the facts that he didn’t expect to be sacked, and that he had been left reflecting on the decision “over the last 12 hours”.
That places his sacking at some time on Tuesday night in the UK, which is in line with reporting from The Telegraph, Sky Sports and The Race.
On Tuesday, Horner was reportedly called to a meeting in London where Red Bull chief Oliver Mintzlaff and motorsport adviser Helmut Marko were waiting.
There, The Telegraph reports that he was told he was “relieved of his operational duties”, though he technically remains on gardening leave as Red Bull grapples with how to pay out the remaining five years of his contact.
According to new details released by the publication on Friday, that payout could be worth up to £60 million (A$125m) if paid out in full.
Apart from taking the news in shock, Horner’s reaction was to make one final request; he wanted to tell his staff himself.
The Red Bull board finalised the decision on Tuesday evening, before Horner walked into Red Bull’s HQ on Wednesday morning and broke the news at about 10am.
The publication reports that Horner shed a tear or two, while five minutes of applause brought the curtain down on a tenure that presided over six constructors’ championships, and eight drivers’ split evenly between Sebastian Vettel and Max Verstappen.
“It was pretty emotional,” a team source told The Telegraph. “Most people have never driven through those gates without Christian in charge.
“People here are just dumbfounded really.”
So, too, was the F1 world with the only people not left stunned being Red Bull’s senior management, including Mintzlaff and Marko.
Tellingly, it’s said that Mintzlaff and Marko were on campus but didn’t bother to listen to Horner’s address.
Instead, they reportedly remained in the factory next door.
It’s therefore little surprise that the team source opted to remain nameless. For starters, Sky Sports’ Craig Slater reports that employees have been given a gag order. Secondly, Horner’s sacking is not the only one at Red Bull this week.
Masked by his own seismic departure is that of “two other senior management figures with close connections to Christian Horner”, Slater reports.
Both The Race and Planet F1 have named the two figures as key Horner allies in group chief marketing and commercial officer Oliver Hughes, and group director of communications Paul Smith.
Make no mistake, this is an operation firmly split — a fact that the final days of Horner’s 20-year tenure — and indeed the blindside sacking itself — has rammed home.
The cracks first appeared in October 2022 with Matechitz’s death.
The end of an era.Source: AP
His passing gave way to a power vacuum within Red Bull Racing that ultimately led to the segregation of the entire unit, with Horner in one corner and Marko, among other senior figures, in the other.
The tumult that ensued generated a house of cards for Horner, which one more act of unrest threatened to topple over.
Sure enough, rumblings around Max Verstappen’s future at the team emerged in the course of Red Bull’s lacklustre 2025 season.
With Verstappen quitting Red Bull representing something of a doomsday scenario for a team with an unhealthy reliance on him, it was the last straw for Horner.
More detail on the three-year period that led to Horner’s sacking can be read in full here >
Meanwhile, it was just two weeks ago in Austria that the momentum against Horner truly started building.
Red Bull suffered a disastrous no-points finish that rendered its 2025 title defence suddenly redundant.
As such, patience was thin and emotions were high when Horner reportedly met with Mintzlaff in Austria to discuss Red Bull’s Salzberg operations taking over the team’s marketing, which had hitherto been done in-house under the team boss.
It’s worth noting here that Horner did not merely run Red Bull’s race operations. Instead, he had turned himself into a powerful figure who also headed up its Powertrains and Advanced Technologies businesses.
As such, this was a small move believed to have been aimed at starting to unravel his massive influence.
In some part, however, this had already begun. Horner in 2023 was said to have told Mintzlaff that he wanted more control over sister team Racing Bulls, or for it to be sold.
Instead, neither happened with the team only becoming more empowered without him through the appointments of Mekies as team boss and Peter Bayer as chief.
Meanwhile, the week after Austria at Silverstone, it became clear to observers that all was not particularly well at Red Bull.
Former car designer and F1 expert Gary Anderson revealed how he was taken aback by Horner’s attitude when he was speaking on the public stage to racegoers.
“I was sitting with Edd Straw doing my trackside piece and could hear him; it was in front of everyone, the swearing was incredible,” Anderson told The Race.
“There were kids there and I said to Edd, ‘There is something going down there – that is not the language a team principal should be using’.
“Perhaps Horner knew about his future then.”
Sky Sports expert and one of Horner’s confidants, Martin Brundle, said the discontent was palpable.
“It’s not been difficult to feel in the Formula 1 paddock, and to observe and to hear that things were not particularly rosy,” Brundle said after Horner’s sacking.
Even so, Wednesday’s announcement came as a shock to the F1 world.
Christian Horner was removed from his position on Wednesday.Source: AP
For the team’s part, official word came on Wednesday after Horner had spent about 90 minutes at Milton Keynes.
“After 20 years with the Team, Christian Horner departs Oracle Red Bull Racing as Team Principal and CEO,” the statement read.
“We thank him for his tireless and exceptional work. He has been instrumental in building this Team into one of the most successful in F1, with eight Drivers’ Championships and six Constructors’ Championships.
“Thank you for everything Christian, you will forever remain an important part of our team’s history.”
Adding an additional, sombre layer to the events was its cruel timing for personal reasons.
Just ten days earlier, Horner’s ex-wife Beverley, the mother to his 11-year-old daughter, died after a long battle with cancer.
The final moments that sealed Horner’s fate remains unclear, but there’s a Verstappen link that cannot be denied.
It was widely known that Horner had a tumultuous relationship with Verstappen’s father, Jos, with which the world champion driver’s allegiance lay. So, too, did Verstappen align with Marko to the point that his contract allegedly had an exit clause that related to the racing supremo’s Red Bull tenure.
In response to Horner’s departure, Verstappen’s manager Raymond Vermeulen only offered a cold statement.
“We were informed in advance by Red Bull’s management that this decision had been made,” Vermeulen said. “It’s up to Red Bull to provide further explanation regarding the reasons.
“We continue to look at the sporting side and are looking for more performance so we can return to the top. In that respect, nothing will change.”
Verstappen only offered a short and sweet sentiment via his social media channels.
“From my first race win, to four world championships, we have shared incredible successes. Winning memorable races and breaking countless records. Thank you for everything, Christian!” he wrote.
If Verstappen was cut by Horner’s departure, he sure isn’t showing it.
