The F1 world was left in shock on Wednesday morning when Christian Horner was released from his operational duties as Red Bull boss.
The sensational news ends the longest reign of Formula One team principals in the sport and comes a year after the scandal that engulfed him over texts he apparently sent to a female employee.
Red Bull issued a statement confirming the news, reading: ‘Red Bull has released Christian Horner from his operational duties with effect from today, Wednesday 9 July 2025, and has appointed Laurent Mekies as CEO of Red Bull Racing.’
Horner’s former Spice Girl wife Geri Halliwell stood by her husband after the explosive accusations rocked the Formula One paddock last year. Horner has vehemently denied the claims.
Screenshots of alleged WhatsApp messages between Horner and a Red Bull employee were leaked anonymously the day after a three-week investigation, carried out externally, cleared the 51-year-old of all allegations.
Horner survived accusations of coercive behaviour towards his colleague – and was twice cleared in internal investigations of wrongdoing.
Christian Horner has been released from his operational duties as Red Bull Team Principal
His exit comes a year after the scandal that engulfed him over texts he allegedly sent to a female employee (pictured with former Spice Girl wife Geri Halliwell earlier this year)
Max Verstappen’s father Jos (right) has repeatedly turned on Horner over recent times
Several figures within F1 and Red Bull were split on Horner, and his efforts to move on from the ‘sex texts’ scandal at the time were frustrated by an enemy in his own camp – the hot-headed father of Red Bull’s star driver, Max Verstappen.
Jos Verstappen repeatedly turned on Horner during the saga, saying the furore was ‘driving the team apart’ and that there would be tension as long as he stayed as its principal.
Jos, who manages his son, also accused Geri Halliwell’s husband of ‘playing the victim’ and said at the time the team would ‘explode’ if he refused to stand aside.
The pair were at loggerheads throughout and were even seen having a heated conversation in Horner’s office ahead of the Bahrain Grand Prix last year before Jos stormed out – although he later returned and the pair shook hands.
The Dutchman is a former F1 driver himself and an influential figure at Red Bull, but he has a controversial past that has seen him come into regular contact with the authorities.
A fight on a go-kart track in 1998 led to him fracturing his victim’s skull and saw him handed a five-year non-custodial sentence by a Belgian court.
A decade later, the three-times married father of five reportedly received a three-month suspended sentence for threatening Max’s mother, Sophie Kumpen, and violating a previously issued restraining order.
Then in November 2011, Jos denied claims he assaulted an unnamed 24-year-old girlfriend in a hotel room in Venlo, Holland.
Horner was seen having an animated discussion with Jos in the Red Bull motorhome at the height of the ‘sex texts’ scandal last year ahead of the 2024 Bahrain Grand Prix
Jos has regularly called for Horner to go and said at the time he ‘was driving the team apart’
Four-time world champion Max with his father while he was still a young go kart driver
And in January the following year, he was arrested for attempted murder after allegedly driving a car into his former girlfriend in the southern Dutch city of Roermond.
The charge was withdrawn due to a lack of evidence and he was released after two weeks in jail.
Jos also had a near-fatal accident at the German Grand Prix in 1994 when his Benetton car exploded into a fireball when he came in for a routine pitstop that went wrong during refuelling.
The Dutchman was Benetton team-mates with legendary racing driver Michael Schumacher before the German left for Ferrari.
None of Jos’ past seems to have changed the close relationship between him and his world champion son.
Max paid an emotional tribute to his father in 2021 after he controversially overtook Lewis Hamilton to win his first championship, saying: ‘All the years we spent travelling for that goal and then everything comes together in the last lap. It’s insane.’
One story of the ‘tough love’ displayed from father to son dates back to 2012, when Jos kicked a 15-year-old Max out of his van as they were driving back home to Holland as punishment for crashing in a kart race.
‘I didn’t speak to him for six or seven days,’ Jos explained. ‘I knew what I was doing. I think it helped him and shaped him.’
Jos had been a long-time critic of Horner and the pair’s feud had continued to cause issues
In November 2011, Jos denied claims he assaulted an unnamed 24-year-old girlfriend in a hotel
Jos’ Benetton racing car caught fire during a pit stop at the German Grand Prix in 1994
Horner was supported by his wife throughout the saga but he now departs just over a year on
Jos was one of Horner’s most vocal critics throughout his time in charge, and the feud that developed last year continued this time around.
After the high profile departures of Red Bull’s design guru Adrian Newey, sporting director Jonathan Wheatley and strategy chief Will Courtenay, Jos said: ‘Yes, this is what I warned about.
‘The team then says “Oh, it doesn’t matter, we have someone else.” But it’s too many people now [leaving].
‘Max gets questions about it every time and so on. So yeah, I think it’s just not good, what’s happening at the moment.
‘He [Horner] always glosses over it.’
During their high profile disagreement last year, what Horner and Jos were discussing in the team trailer remains a secret – although the now former Red Bull chief was clearly agitated and seen pointing outside and waving his hand around. Jos had his hands in his pockets.
Throughout their feud, it raised constant speculation over whether it may impact Verstappen’s future at Red Bull, although he recently told Mail Sport that he is planning to stay with the constructor.
Meanwhile, according to his affiliates, Horner believed Verstappen Snr orchestrated a campaign to unseat him when the sex-text scandal broke, the implication being that the Dutchman may even have had a hand in the email leak.
