NEW YORK — Christian Horner has revealed Red Bull shareholders called to thank him after the Red Bull Ford Powertrains engine secured its maiden Formula 1 victory in Malaysia. Speaking at the Autosport Business Exchange in New York, Horner said the gesture recognised his role in creating the power unit project before he was sacked and replaced by Laurent Mekies in July 2025, two decades after he joined the Milton Keynes-based squad when they acquired Jaguar ahead of the 2005 season.
Horner, who led Red Bull to eight drivers’ and six constructors’ titles and oversaw their transition from engine customer to manufacturer after Honda announced their withdrawal in 2020 and exited at the end of the 2021 season, said the challenge was to replicate chassis success on the power unit side. “We managed to do it on the chassis side and then the challenge came, could we do it on the engine side?” he said. “You know, we needed to have an engine after Honda announced their withdrawal in 2020. So we created this start-up company called Powertrains, with the same philosophy of attracting the talent, giving people the chances and giving people the opportunity, and empowering them and encouraging them to push the boundaries. I've been super proud to be a part of the engine that was developed and delivered this year.”
Red Bull continued to use the Japanese powertrains until last year before their own unit, designed in collaboration with Ford, debuted in 2026 and claimed its first win in Malaysia courtesy of Max Verstappen, who made it back-to-back victories one week later in Singapore. “It was an appreciated gesture, seeing that engine and knowing what went into it, you know, the sweat and tears along the way,” Horner said. “For all the men and women involved, it was an incredible, incredible achievement. To win a grand prix is very hard at the best times. I was very grateful to both the shareholders who reached out, and all of the men and women who reached out to thank me as well. It was quite a different call to the one I had 15 months earlier.”
Horner described that earlier call, which led to his dismissal, as “pretty abrupt and quite brutal”, noting his position had become increasingly precarious following the death of Red Bull co-founder Dietrich Mateschitz at the end of 2022. He said he did not have the Verstappen camp on his side and was losing the support of the Yoovidhya family — Chalerm Yoovidhya is a majority owner of the company — as the group sought to bring more control back to head office.
“I felt that things were changing,” Horner said. “Nothing stays the same forever, and after the founder Dietrich Mateschitz sadly passed at the end of ‘22, it was always going to be the case that the company was going to evolve or was going to change. Dietrich, he was Red Bull, he was the power behind all big decisions. And suddenly, obviously, trying to replace somebody like that, it’s impossible. There was a drive to bring more control back into the head office and that sat differently from the autonomy that we'd enjoyed at Red Bull Racing. It was a different path than essentially what we were on, and you could feel that that was changing. It wasn't that it was right or wrong, it was just different. So, inevitably, it came to a deadlock.”