What Guenther Steiner found “very off” about Christian Horner exit

Guenther Steiner has revealed what surprised him most about Christian Horner’s shock sacking from Red Bull.

Horner was relieved of his duties after 20 years at the helm of the Milton Keynes outfit last week in a move which stunned the F1 world.

Steiner, who worked with Horner during the early days at Red Bull in the role of technical operations director, has reacted to the news of his departure.

"I worked with him over a year in the beginning,” the former Haas team principal told The Red Flags Podcast. “We started almost together. He started one month before me. So, yeah, I was pretty surprised as well when it happened.

"I mean, you know that there was something going on at Red Bull. I think we all were aware of it. We cannot say 'oh we didn't know that something was going on' because it's more than a year now since we had the whatever it was called - that scandal in the beginning of last year. It wasn't happy days anymore at Red Bull, I would say, but I didn't expect it.

"I mean, if something like this happens, normally Red Bull is pretty good in managing it a little bit with a gliding path or something, but this came completely out of the blue, to me. Obviously, maybe not at Red Bull, but I think nothing was out there that it will happen. You know, things change and things move on.”

Steiner went on to describe the timing of Horner’s dismissal as being “very off”.

"It's very off because you've got only a few races before the summer break, and normally you do it in the summer break," he explained.

"People shut down. This is done a few days after a race. So it is off as you say, the timing of it and I guess they had some disagreement about something, whatever it is.

"We will find out, we just have to wait a little. But, it's very off how it happened.”

Are Red Bull trying to keep Max Verstappen happy?

Red Bull’s decision to sack Horner has been viewed by many as an attempt to keep Max Verstappen happy amid uncertainty surrounding his future.

The four-time world champion is contracted to Red Bull until the end of 2028 but has a clause in his deal that would allow him to leave next year if certain conditions are met.

Verstappen’s father Jos had a public falling out with Horner last year in the wake of the allegations made against the 51-year-old Briton by a female colleague. Horner’s relationship with the Verstappen’s has been strained ever since. 

“It could be that Max put that as one of the things he wanted, you know, it's a weird thing for a driver to say 'somebody has to go so that I stay’,” Steiner said. "It is never set as clear as this because then you really fire at somebody, and as the world best F1 driver, you shouldn't have to be doing that.

"But maybe they jumped to the conclusion and said if we want to keep Max something needs to change and we let Christian go. Because obviously, as you said, Jos [Verstappen] and Christian - obviously they didn't see eye to eye on quite a few things, I mean it was publicly known and publicly played out.

"So that's never good for either - for the team, nor for the driver. Max always kept out of that, very smartly. So maybe the management at Red Bull said if we want to make Max happy to keep him, we have to do something, and obviously, do you want the best driver in the world? Yes, he comes at a price.

"Why they do it now, I don't know. But I think why they didn't do it last year, it was more like we tried to fix this, and Christian was a big part of the team, and he had a lot of success. So, you need to believe in him as well because he did a good job."