Ralf Schumacher: “Mood is completely different” at Red Bull after Christian Horner exit

Ex-F1 driver Ralf Schumacher claimed that the “mood is completely different” at Red Bull after the team decided to replace Christian Horner with Laurent Mekies.

This weekend’s Belgian Grand Prix will be Red Bull’s first without Horner.

Horner was Red Bull team principal since 2005, overseeing title success with Sebastian Vettel in the early 2010s.

The Briton was in charge during Max Verstappen’s success between 2021 and 2024.

However, Red Bull decided to part ways with Horner during the two-week gap between Silverstone and Spa-Francorchamps.

Red Bull’s performance on-track has declined, while there have been intense rumours surrounding Verstappen’s F1 future.

Red Bull have lost a number of high-profile personnel over the last 12 months, including Adrian Newey and Jonathan Wheatley, while under Horner, they could not replace them with any high-profile names.

Schumacher has backed Red Bull’s decision to replace Horner with Mekies, with the impact already being felt at Milton Keynes.

“I think Red Bull made an extremely good move,’ Schumacher said on the  Backstage Boxengasse Podcast.

“In this case, Oliver Mintzlaff and [Mark] Mateschitz by now putting Mekies in this position.

“That did something for the team. Within a short period of time, one hears that the mood is completely different, the approach is different, and one must not forget that Max Verstappen has never been in a different team in his career.

“He has everything to thank Red Bull for. So, he’s not making it easy for himself, and maybe he doesn’t even really want to leave.

“I can imagine, if everything is fine here, why should he leave? I don’t think that’s quite what he wanted.

“It just led to the car not working as well as it should. There were internal problems with politics, and suddenly the mood wasn’t so good.

“So, from that point of view, I think it’s actually very, very open again. Such a development can happen quickly, and this feel-good factor for a driver is important. And this team is completely behind him.”

Will Verstappen now stay at Red Bull?

Schumacher’s comments coincide with Toto Wolff’s statement that the “direction of travel” is towards retaining George Russell and Kimi Antonelli.

“Discussions have been taking place over the last weeks and months. So they are all up to date,” Wolff told Austrian broadcaster ORF.

“The direction of travel is definitely that we want to continue with George and Kimi. That is the absolute priority.

“But you can’t look past someone like Max and the plans he has for the future.

“We did that, but I don’t think there will be any big surprises.”

Verstappen is now most likely to stay at Red Bull, for 2026 at least.