Christian Horner has now officially left his role as the team principal of Red Bull after 20 years, during which he oversaw Max Verstappen win four drivers’ championships.
The 51-year-old was one of the founding fathers of the Red Bull F1 team, as he took over the helm in Milton Keynes ahead of their debut in the 2005 season. But Horner is now searching for a new home in the paddock for once his gardening leave ends early in the 2026 season.
Horner agreed with Red Bull to sit out the rest of this term as part of his severance package, reportedly worth anywhere from £52m to £80m, to potentially join another team as soon as possible. The parties had been in talks about his pay-off since Red Bull fired Horner in July.
Red Bull sacked Horner amid his quest for more power and their worsening results, with the Briton managing Red Bull Racing, Red Bull Powertrains and Red Bull Advanced Technologies. His all-in ways resulted in Red Bull’s eight drivers’ titles and six constructors’ championships.
Ferrari blaming Max Verstappen for a racing incident with Sebastian Vettel in the 2017 Singapore Grand Prix astonished Christian Horner
Verstappen has won Red Bull’s past four drivers’ titles in 2021, 2022, 2023 and 2024, whilst helping the Milton Keynes team take the 2022 and 2023 constructors’ titles under Horner’s watch. Horner was also a big believer in Verstappen’s talents all throughout his career in F1.
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In his role as Red Bull’s team principal, Horner also leapt to Verstappen’s defence when the Dutchman was put under a microscope. And that included Horner taking aim at Ferrari after they blamed Verstappen for a crash with Sebastian Vettel in the 2017 Singapore Grand Prix.
Verstappen and Ferrari pair, Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen, all retired on the first lap of the 2017 Singapore GP after coming together off the grid in heavy rain. The race stewards declared it a racing incident, with neither driver predominantly at fault, but Ferrari blamed Verstappen.
The official Ferrari X (formerly Twitter) account bluntly claimed after the crash: “Verstappen took Kimi out and then he went into Seb.” Ferrari’s Twitter account also then added: “What we tweeted was a factual description of [the] events. No need to speculate on this.”
But Ferrari’s post astonished Horner given most, if not all, of the blame fell on Vettel instead of Verstappen for their crash in the 2017 Singapore GP. The German aggressively cut over to defend from the fast-starting Verstappen, which sandwiched the Dutchman into Raikkonen.
So, Horner told Sky Sports in response to Ferrari’s post: “How on earth you can work that out from watching that, I have no idea. Anyone who can blame Verstappen out of that needs their eyes tested.”
Sebastian Vettel was the most at fault for his crash with Max Verstappen in the 2017 Singapore GP
Vettel beat Verstappen to secure pole position for the 2017 Singapore GP by 0.323 seconds, despite only being 12th-fastest in Q1 and fourth-fastest in Q3. But the German struggled to get his Ferrari off the wet grid as quickly as Verstappen pulled away to threaten for the lead.
So, Vettel instinctively drifted across to squeeze Verstappen and try to force his rival to yield before Turn 1. But the Ferrari driver did not see his teammate, Raikkonen, had flown off the grid from fourth place and was even edging ahead of Verstappen before they made contact.
Raikkonen’s blistering launch meant Verstappen had nowhere to move to when Vettel tried to squeeze him out at the start of the 2017 Singapore GP. So, Verstappen tagged Raikkonen into a race-ending spin, which also sent the Finn into the side of Vettel and out of the race.
Vettel tried to continue but spun before Turn 5 and accepted his race was over. Verstappen might also have been able to try to limp back to the pit lane, but Raikkonen’s ruined Ferrari SF70H careered into Turn 1 and wiped the Dutchman and McLaren’s Fernando Alonso out.