Christian Horner branded “master politician” after latest Red Bull F1 claim

Formula 1 pundit Karun Chandhok has labelled Red Bull team principal Christian Horner a “master politician” for his ability to change narratives to suit his interests.

With Red Bull struggling to match pacesetter McLaren in the early part of the 2025 season, Horner has blamed a correlation issue between the wind tunnel and the track for the shortcomings of the RB21.

It follows Horner's previous description of the team’s existing wind tunnel in Bedford as a “Cold War relic” to highlight its outdated nature compared to the aero-testing facilities of other teams.

However, Chandhok was unimpressed with Horner’s argument, saying the Briton tends to reframe the conversation.

His own research suggests that if a correlation issue does exist at Red Bull, then the wind tunnel itself is not the root cause of the problem.

“Every time I listen to Christian Horner's ‘our wind tunnel is a relic of the cold war’ thing….it's just PR spin,” the former F1 driver said on the Sky F1 podcast.

“He is such a master politician. When we did the cost cap last year [he showed he was a] master of deflection, he just pivoted to some other story.

“I don't see Racing Bulls complaining about correlation for the wind tunnel [and] they use the same wind tunnel.

“I asked a couple of people at Racing Bulls, do you struggle with correlation [and there were like] 'nope'.

“So it comes back to a Red Bull Racing issue. Sure, there is a correlation between their design in the factory and the wind tunnel, but that is a Red Bull issue rather than a ‘this is our relic of the Cold War where we design so many things.”

After Max Verstappen was hit with a five-second time penalty for going off track and gaining an advantage at the start of the Saudi Arabian GP, Horner brought printed images of the incident to his media scrum to defend the Dutchman's actions.

The supposed photographic evidence showed polesitter Verstappen running ahead of McLaren rival Oscar Piastri as they approached the opening chicane.

Chandhok saw that attempt at influencing the media as very much in line with his character as a politician.

“You have to give Christian credit, he is very good at at least trying to spin it.

“When you arrived at the post-race thing with all of his printouts ready to go to argue the Max Verstappen thing. I'm sure it’s not an accident that on Instagram he posted a picture from high above showing Max ahead of Oscar.

“The fact that he has come off the brakes and is heading straight to the run-off area at a higher speed [is irrelevant], let's ignore that bit.”

Chandhok added: “He manages to spin the narrative and get enough people to believe it that it becomes fact - and I give him credit for it.

“If you look at the last 24 months and the number of PR stories that they had to manage, he has weathered the storm and he has come out of it.”

Red Bull is building a new wind tunnel at its campus in Milton Keynes that is expected to become operational next year.