Nico Rosberg stunned by “unthinkable” Christian Horner F1 exit: “A big shock”

2016 F1 world champion Nico Rosberg has described Christian Horner’s absence from the Belgian Grand Prix as “unthinkable”.

During the two-week gap between the British and Belgian Grands Prix, Red Bull announced it had parted ways with Horner.

Horner had been the Red Bull team principal since 2005, overseeing their success over the last two decades.

However, Red Bull’s decline in on-track performance and concerns about Horner’s power in the team led the company’s management in Austria to make the shocking decision to sack him.

Laurent Mekies has been appointed as his replacement.

Red Bull started off the weekend at Spa impressively, as Max Verstappen won the sprint race.

Giving his reaction to the Horner news, Rosberg told Sky Sports: “Christian Horner not being here anymore is unthinkable. That's completely unreal.

“It was a big, big shock and surprise to everybody, including himself. He didn't see it coming at all, nor did anybody in the team.

“But of course, it was a long time in the making. Coming on from last year from all the issues that he'd been having there, so I think this was just a result of that.

“But nobody really still knows 100 per cent what exactly happened.”

Rosberg lauds “brilliant” Verstappen

Verstappen produced another masterclass to win the sprint race in Belgium.

The four-time world champion capitalised on Red Bull’s impressive straight-line speed advantage to overtake Oscar Piastri on the opening lap.

Verstappen kept the two McLarens at bay to come out on top in the sprint.

Rosberg praised Verstappen for his impressive performance.

“We have to appreciate what an incredibly brilliant drive that was from Max Verstappen,” Rosberg added. “From the outside, sometimes it can look a little easier, but in the car, he has a slower car than the McLarens; he has the maximum pressure - Oscar was always 0.6-0.7s behind all the way.

“When you're inside the car, the pressure from Max is so insanely high in that car. One tiny mistake and the win is again. It's so much easier for the guy who's following, who for most of the race did not have anyone behind him."

“In a race car, you are finding the limit, which changes every lap because of the tyre wear and the fuel coming down. You want to get close to that limit, without going over in the case of Max.

“If you're Oscar, you can scan the limit, and he doesn't mind going over. He goes over a bit, loses half a second, then can have another go. That's the enormous difference.”