This was never the way that Christian Horner would have expected his time in charge of Red Bull’s Formula One team to come to an end.

As recently as last month, Horner said his commitment was “100 percent” to Red Bull Racing, with a contract running to the end of the decade. In 20 years, he’d overseen the team’s transformation from a floundering midfielder that was sold to the energy drink giant for £1 to one that conquered the F1 world with unprecedented levels of success.

In January 2005, a 31-year-old Horner waited in the car park of the team’s factory while the former Jaguar F1 boss was being dismissed, before being introduced to the workforce as the youngest team principal in F1 history upon the rebrand to Red Bull Racing. In the book Growing Wings, published last year, Horner revealed he only knew one person in the room, getting an otherwise frosty response from the stunned workforce.

Twenty years later, Horner knew every single person who assembled for his speech on Wednesday morning when he informed them he would no longer be serving as team principal. In footage of the speech obtained by Sky Sports, Horner described the news as a “shock”, calling his time at Red Bull “the biggest privilege of my life” as he paid tribute to the team members. He was subject to a big round of applause when he took a moment to gather himself after becoming emotional.

It was evidence of the widespread support that Horner retained from the workforce within Red Bull Racing, which had persisted even in the wake of an investigation into allegations of misconduct and inappropriate behavior made against Horner by a female Red Bull employee last year. The grievance was dismissed after an internal investigation, a decision upheld on appeal. Horner denied the allegations.

But with the team tracking for its worst championship finish in a decade, and continued questions being asked over star driver Max Verstappen’s future, Red Bull Racing’s parent company, Red Bull GmbH, has decided to act and confirmed on Wednesday that Horner had been “released from his operational duties.”

It’s a significant break point in the recent history of Red Bull, and although the tensions have been bubbling away in the team for some time, the sudden nature of Horner’s departure makes it a big shock for the entire F1 paddock.

The long-running power struggle

Since the death of Red Bull’s founder, Dietrich Mateschitz, in October 2022, the struggle for power at Red Bull Racing has been rumbling in the background between the two ‘sides’ that own the parent company, Red Bull GmbH.

The Austrian arm of the company owns 49 percent of shares, overseen by Mark Mateschitz, Dietrich’s son and heir. The remaining — and crucial — 51 percent belong to Chalerm Yoovidhya, the son of Chaleo Yoovidhya, who co-founded Red Bull with Dietrich Mateschitz in the 1980s

The fact that Yoovidhya had the majority share meant that, through all the internal power struggles that may have played out at Red Bull, his support was critical to Horner. Yoovidhya was a notable attendee at last year’s Bahrain Grand Prix — days after the grievance against Horner was dismissed, and a cache of unverified messages and photos purportedly sent by Horner to the complainant were anonymously sent to numerous international media members and high-ranking F1 figures — and spent time with Horner on the grid, as well as in parc ferme while celebrating Verstappen’s victory. Yoovidhya most recently attended the Austrian Grand Prix, Red Bull’s home race, at the end of June.

Traditionally, decisions taken by the shareholders were made in consultation with Horner, Red Bull Motorsport consultant Helmut Marko (who has always been close to the Austrian side of the company), and Oliver Mintzlaff, Red Bull GmbH’s CEO of corporate projects and investments. Last year, Marko’s position came into question amid scrutiny over his potential role in the message leaks, only for talks with Mintzlaff to lead to him staying in his position. Verstappen had warned when the initial question marks over Marko’s future arose that he could not continue racing for the team if the Austrian were to depart.

Last week at Silverstone, Horner spoke of Red Bull Racing having “very tight senior management” and “a very strong structure.” While this may have been true for the team itself, with key personnel reporting to Horner, there was always an awkward struggle for power playing out behind the scenes — one that would only be definitively decided by those at the very top.

Horner’s dismissal suggests that the all-important support from the Thai side of the company had disappeared, and there is an alignment between the shareholders that a change was required. The Athletic has approached Red Bull GmbH for comment.

The messaging from Red Bull in the wake of the news has been one of gratitude. The press release announcing Horner’s exit included a quote from Mintzlaff thanking the Briton for his “exceptional work.” The team’s social media post about the news was almost word-for-word the same as Mintzlaff’s quote.

But why now?

What separates the Red Bull of July 2025 from any other point in its recent history under Horner is its on-track fortunes. This year, they have not been wholly positive.

Verstappen has hauled his Red Bull RB21 car to two race wins, putting in majestic displays at Suzuka and Imola to snare victory away from the dominant McLarens. Otherwise, the 27-year-old’s immeasurable talent has been enough to compensate for the shortcomings of Red Bull’s car, which has proven troublesome since midway through last season.

The issues with the car have been illustrated most plainly by the ‘second’ Red Bull car, which hasn’t recorded a top-five finish in over a year. Sergio Pérez’s spiraling form led to his exit at the end of last year, with Red Bull preferring to pay out for his contract for 2025 instead of keeping him in the car. His replacement, Liam Lawson, lasted just two races before being dropped for Yuki Tsunoda, who has scored only seven points and is still far behind Verstappen.

As much as Red Bull may insist the car is not built around Verstappen, the truth is only the Dutchman has tamed its difficult nature to score regular points. Verstappen is responsible for 165 of the team’s 172 points this year, or 95.9 percent, a reliance and lack of support from the other side of the garage that could also have bred some frustration within the Verstappen camp. The lack of two drivers fighting at the very front will always hurt championship potential.

The failure to remedy the struggles with the car that emerged midway through last year and keep pace with McLaren has also occurred against the backdrop of a series of major departures. The highest-profile exit was that of Adrian Newey, Red Bull’s chief technical officer and the most successful designer in F1 history, who quit after 19 years last year before a move to Aston Martin. This followed the exit of chief engineering officer Rob Marshall at the start of 2024, who joined McLaren as a technical director and has since been instrumental in the team’s success.

Newey wasn’t the only big name to leave Red Bull last year. Jonathan Wheatley, Red Bull’s sporting director, departed at the end of the season to become the Sauber team principal, while head of strategy Will Courtenay is set to join McLaren next year as its new sporting director.

Horner has consistently downplayed the potential impact of these exits, instead talking up Red Bull’s strength in depth and its ability to bring more engineering talent through its ranks. However, observers from rival teams up and down the paddock have privately commented that it doesn’t point to a stable team to have so many names leaving.

The big concern for Red Bull’s shareholders will be the struggle for on-track performance compared to its rivals. At present, Red Bull sits fourth in the constructors’ championship and is effectively relying solely on Verstappen for its returns. Barring an uplift in form, it’s tough to envisage the team clawing past either Mercedes or Ferrari, with McLaren already well on its way to a second straight constructors’ title. Fourth would be Red Bull’s worst constructors’ finish since 2015, bringing with it a reduced prize money return running into the tens of millions compared to the historic double title-winning 2023 season.

Verstappen and Horner ahead of FP2 at the British GP (Sipa USA)

The impact of Verstappen’s future

Another critical piece of context at this time is the spotlight being placed on Verstappen’s future amid continued speculation about a potential switch to Mercedes for the 2026 season.

Horner has always dismissed this as “noise” and pointed to Verstappen’s contract that runs to 2028. Although he acknowledged at Silverstone that there was a need to plan for a post-Verstappen era at Red Bull, it wasn’t one he outwardly recognized could happen soon. Verstappen has recently batted away questions about his future, yet also passed on opportunities to firmly state he will be racing for Red Bull next year.

Verstappen’s father, Jos, was one of the most outspoken critics of Horner at the height of the investigation into the now former Red Bull team principal last year. He warned after the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix that Red Bull would be “torn apart” if Horner stayed in charge, showing just how poor relations had grown between the two men. There has been little outward sign of improvement since.

In a crammed media session, the images of which have since been widely shared on social media, at Silverstone last Thursday, Max Verstappen was asked if there was any truth to rumors that his camp was pushing for Horner’s exit. Verstappen replied: “I don’t know anything about that.”

Verstappen’s personal social media account shared a message on Wednesday that struck a similar grateful tone to the Red Bull GmbH statement, accompanied by a picture of him embracing Horner. “From my first race win to four world championships, we have shared incredible successes,” Verstappen wrote. “Winning memorable races and breaking countless records. Thank you for everything, Christian!”

Unquestionably, Horner’s exit will have an impact on Verstappen’s decision-making as he weighs his next move. He’s been clear in his frustration about the team’s struggle for form this year, long brushing off thoughts of retaining his world title. To him, the most important thing is performance.

And one thing Verstappen has always stressed is the need to bring that out, particularly in the early months of 2024, is a calmness and peace around him; the right conditions in which to get the best out of himself. Should this change bring about that peace by defusing any power struggle, that would only be seen as a positive step toward keeping Verstappen in place.

Yet changing the man at the top does not immediately guarantee on-track success. It took Andrea Stella 18 months to get things to click with McLaren, while Fred Vasseur’s Ferrari honeymoon is well and truly over. Horner’s replacement, Laurent Mekies, is well-known and well-liked within the Red Bull setup.

However, a significant task will be convincing Verstappen that it remains the best place for him to race next year and beyond. If the doubt is so great that a move away is desired, then Red Bull would end up losing its most prized asset of all.

(Top photo: Sipa USA)

“Americans think British people are snotty and pretentious but smart. British people think Americans are stupid and vulgar but funny,” a family member tells Jessica, the protagonist of Lena Dunham’s new rom-com series Too Much, before she boards a plane to London. Whether this statement is true would be unseemly for me to comment on, as a British person writing in an American publication, but the line serves as a thesis statement for the series as a whole: Americans and Brits—we don’t quite get each other.

Too Much, newly released on Netflix, follows Jessica (Megan Stalter), a commercial producer in her early 30s fresh off an agonizing breakup with the man she thought she would be with forever, as she leaves New York and tries to start a new life in London. On her first night in town, she meets a musician, Felix (Will Sharpe), at the pub, and from there they begin a situationship. The England she had imagined living in—full of dashing Hugh Grant types or perhaps hard-bitten Yorkshire policewomen, maybe an empire-waist dress or two—turns out to be a fantasy. When she imagined her new flat located on what she believed to be a Hoxton “estate,” she pictured manicured gardens, not concrete tower blocks. England is (surprise, surprise) not how it looked on the television.

People love to shit on Lena Dunham. When Girls came out 13 years ago on HBO, it was, I suppose, intolerable to many that she was very young, very talented, and very artless in the way she presented herself in public. To be frank, I am a firm Dunham apologist. Whatever you think of her as a person, it’s childish to try to deny that Girls was anything short of sensational. All of which is to say that hopes will be high for this series; mine certainly were when I heard that Dunham, who has been living in London for four years and whose relationship with a British man—her now husband, Luis Felber—served as the inspiration for the central relationship, was making a splashy new TV show. Or maybe hopes is the wrong word. I felt in some ways genuinely anxious that, while I had escaped the crosshairs of painful self-recognition in Girls because I wasn’t a woman in her 20s trying to tough it out in New York City at the time, as a woman currently in her 30s living in London, Too Much might make me cringe into oblivion. The protagonist develops an all-consuming crush on a grimy, repressed rollie-smoking guy who plays pub gigs with an indie band? What woman in London, God help us, has not?

Instead, I found the London of it all a little grating. Not because the show’s depiction of life in Britain is inaccurate. Much of it is actually on the money. Aristocratic British people do indeed always seem to be wanging on about dogs they’ve loved who are now dead, and launching some harebrained new business just for something to do, like one woman Jessica meets who has a “Cretan sandal” company. We do like to talk about our favorite instances of what you guys would, I think, call “highway gas stations.” Felix correctly notes that we find it tiresome when Americans think it’s funny to repeat what we’ve just said back to us in that Dick Van Dyke accent. Our homes are damp, our teeth are not as nice as yours (yours are too nice, by the way, but let’s close that can of worms), pub toilets are mostly disgusting, and we do indeed say flat instead of apartment. All that is correct. Rather, it felt as if the show was trying too hard to continually prove that it gets Britain. At points, watching it left me with the same mild secondhand embarrassment I experience listening to Taylor Swift’s “London Boy” or reading the following line, which Dunham wrote in a recent piece for the New Yorker about how she finds life in her new city: “I moved with ease, whether walking on Hampstead Heath or sliding into a black cab, greeted by a gruff ‘Oy! Where you ’eaded?’ ”

While not a cartoonish depiction of London, it is sort of entry level. Which is fine—most people watching this show will have only a basic familiarity with Britain—but it meant that I found the repeated British lore elements more dull than anything else. We already know them, after all. Lines about, say, the Jaffa Cake tax controversy or George Michael crashing his car into a branch of a photo lab called Snappy Snaps might sound fresh to non-Brits, but these quips are stale to us. While watching the first few episodes of Too Much, I found myself thinking: How much juice can they be hoping to get out of the simple fact that Americans and British people are different?

Thank God that doesn’t go on for the entirety of the series. Halfway through the season, Dunham finally won me round. At the beginning of the series, we learn that Jessica has been dumped by her longtime boyfriend Zev (Michael Zegen) for an influencer-slash-model, played by Emily Ratajkowski. But it is only in the fifth episode that Dunham takes us back in time to really let us feel how painful the collapse of that relationship was. In the early years, Zev made Jessica feel safe and loved, played games with her family, delighted in all the qualities of hers that might seem “too much” to other people. Just like Jessica and Felix do as they get to know each other, we see that Jessica and Zev once flopped around their apartment, talking about everything and nothing in the wee hours of the morning. Having those meandering, mundane conversations that quietly get at the heart of what is real and profound about people trying to live alongside one another—that is what Dunham has always written so beautifully. Slowly, we see Zev start to pull away, to chip away at Jessica’s self-esteem little by little until she felt as if she had paper cuts all over her body, as she puts it. And her falling for Felix runs alongside and bleeds into her getting over Zev, a familiar tale to many people who have been spat back out into the world of dating in their 30s after thinking they were out of that chaos for good.

The emotional core of Too Much, two people trying to connect in their 30s with the weight of past hurt heavy on their shoulders, is moving and messy and compelling. And it’s done well enough that, by the end, I had almost forgiven the fact that the Brits-vs.-Americans shtick was, for me, too much. Too Much works best when it’s not emulating the fish-out-of-water approach of Emily in Paris. Let it just be, and we may just have our long-awaited successor to Girls.