2025 Oracle Red Bull Racing F1 Team

[Bill]

its ironic that Horner built the team around Max now Max is the reason he leaving if belief gossip ,how about that for loyalty.

[Watto]

I don't understand why people think this means Max is staying, this is all more reason to leave, replacing Horner on top of the other big names they've lost this year means that it's going to be harder than ever to create the best car/team and culture. These are massive shoes to fill and the new guys can't be expected to perform miracles, Mekies doesn't even look like a long term solution, perhaps just holding position until they find someone better.

Peter Windsor in a YouTube live said the Mekies promotion is only temporary may well be full time but doesn't sound certain.

I am torn a bit on what it means for Max I can see it either way, the talk in recent times the Max camp wanted Horner gone or power reduced if he was to stay now this comes out. So maybe Max and co got their way, a dangerous kinda game in a way if that's how it went. Or Max leaving could be the final straw after all the other departures. Guess we will wait and see

[Watto]

I think that now Mintzlaff can persuade Yoovidhya to sell the team to Porsche

Interesting.

I'm hearing from some quarters that Mintzlaff did the Horner firing unilaterally and without Thai shareholders permission.
All media enquiries are being directed to Austria and not Red Bull's PR department(which is mahooosive).

Chelerm could fire Mintzlaff...but as yet (6pm local time in Thailand) there is no comment from Yoovidhya's.

Porsche might well be circling to put out this bonfire.

The rumour I did read the a few days ago was Yoovidhya was open to replacing or reducing Horners control tend to think he was on board with it

[FNTC]

The statement says he will "take over the duties of CEO". So sounds temporary at least for now. Maybe depends on results going forward.

[Rikhart]

Verstappen would have to frankly be an idiot to stay in this corpse of a team, and I don't think he is an idiot at all. This team won't win anything for a loooong time now.

[Waz]

Laurent Mekies of all people!! Talk about failing upwards, good grief.

Feels like the board at Red Bull have lost their minds since Dieter passed away.

They fire one of the most successful TPs in F1 history instead of the technical team.

There is no way I would stay if I was Max. Toto must be wetting himself.

[franbatista123]

Verstappen would have to frankly be an idiot to stay in this corpse of a team, and I don't think he is an idiot at all. This team won't win anything for a loooong time now.

With Horner out i'm almost certain that they won't win anything for a long time, if he had stayed at least we had a few years to see if his long term vision works out, specially in 2027/28.

[Wouter]

Finally:

[Waz]

Brundle on Sky Sports New thinks this makes Max staying MORE likely.

If course he could be wrong, but he points out that the TP is really just a figurehead these days.

Horner is definitely no figurehead. And it's no coincidence that teams with long term TPs enjoy sustained success.

Every new TP somehow feels the need to reshuffle or reorganize the structure, which always means new sporting director, new technical director, new heads of aero and mechanical etc etc.

It's basically the circle of failure that Ferrari has been in since Todt left.

[Vettel165]

Laurent Mekies of all people!! Talk about failing upwards, good grief.

Feels like the board at Red Bull have lost their minds since Dieter passed away.

They fire one of the most successful TPs in F1 history instead of the technical team.

There is no way I would stay if I was Max. Toto must be wetting himself.

Indeed just go to Mercedes Max, and you will have that fifth title in 2026 or 2027.

[balex]

IMO the Horner/Verstappen friction is overstated while the Horner/Mateschitz friction is understated. This is the spawn throwing a tantrum to assert their dominance after failing to do so so far. Loyalty ahead of competence is how it is in the world of nepotism. Unfortunately I expect the kid to run Red Bull into the ground - he is not very smart.

[Seanspeed]

Verstappen would have to frankly be an idiot to stay in this corpse of a team, and I don't think he is an idiot at all. This team won't win anything for a loooong time now.

Horner would have never accomplished any of what he did without Newey. That was always the real core of the team. The guy did more than just sit in an office with a drawing board, penning car designs. Newey has always had a very holistic perspective of what makes for a good F1 team and enjoyed being able to have his input on how the team was built and run. Even if he wasn't the end decision maker, you'd also have been a fool to not listen to the guy.

Horner made a career out of basically listening to Newey. Certainly a smart thing to do, but not something that required any kind of particular genius.

Basically, the team was already heading on a downward trajectory after Newey left. Horner staying or leaving was not going to make much difference to this.

[TeamKoolGreen]

All of you who wanted Horner gone, you got your wish. Now the board and an empty suit in Mekies is running the team. Along with Marko and Jos.

Red Bull racing as we knew it died when the founder died. And now with Horner gone , the destruction and the road to nowhere is complete. From Jaguar it came and back to Jaguar it goes.

https://x.com/thef1diplomat/status/1942 ... SHC4Q&s=19

[Quantum]

All of you who wanted Horner gone, you got your wish. Now the board and an empty suit in Mekies is running the team. Along with Marko and Jos.

Red Bull racing as we knew it died when the founder died. And now with Horner gone , the destruction and the road to nowhere is complete. From Jaguar it came and back to Jaguar it goes.

https://x.com/thef1diplomat/status/1942 ... SHC4Q&s=19

Stewart Ford was first.... one part of that will be complete in 2026.

[Matt2725]

Horner being sucked means Verstappen has signed for another team already. my opinion

Makes no sense. You don't throw the baby out with the bath water.

There was an obvious power struggle between the Verstappen camp and Horner. If anything this solidifies Max's position.

Well let's see nobody knows for certain. I feel Verstapen had signed a new deal during the weekend, in my opinion with another team.

RBR aren't shy about letting the cat out the bag. If Max had gone, they'd have announced it already. They're not going to protect someone on their way out the door by keeping things quiet.