Christian Horner sack: Zoom call and clay pigeon shoot details emerge

New details surrounding Christian Horner’s sacking from Red Bull have emerged.

Horner was relieved of his Red Bull team principal duties last week in an announcement which stunned the F1 world.

The 51-year-old Briton had been F1’s longest-serving team boss and led Red Bull to six constructors’ world championships and eight drivers’ titles during his 20-year stint with the Milton Keynes squad.

German publication Bild has shed new light on the shock firing, detailing how Horner was informed of his axe.

Horner was reportedly told of his dismissal during a face-to-face meeting with Red Bull chief Oliver Mintzlaff and advisor Helmut Marko in a London hotel suite last Tuesday.

Horner was said to have been blind-sided by the decision, though the move had been in the works since the Austrian Grand Prix at the end of June.

This is believed to have been when Mintzlaff first considered a change. According to Bild, a crunch meeting involving Mintzlaff and billionaire owners Chalerm Yoovidhya and Mark Mateschitz took place at Red Bull’s headquarters.

Decision announced over Zoom call 

Mintzlaff communicated the decision during a Zoom call a week later, with Red Bull’s owners giving the green light to remove Horner from his position.

Horner is said to have lost support from Yoovidhya, who was a key ally for the Briton in the wake of the scandal which engulfed him at the start of the 2024 season.

Friction at the top of Red Bull had reportedly been caused by Horner’s expanding grip on power within the company’s structure.

Yoovidhya is said to have been angered by Horner’s reluctance to cede control over key departments including marketing, technical and the power unit.

Bild reported that both Yoovidhya and Max Verstappen were absent from Horner’s annual clay pigeon shoot event near Oxford in the days before the British Grand Prix.

Verstappen’s future with Red Bull remains uncertain and the four-time world champion was rumoured to have met with Mercedes boss Toto Wolff last week.

Mercedes have been publicly courting Verstappen, who has performance-related clauses in his current deal which would enable him to leave Red Bull as early as next year.