Christian Horner impact hailed after ‘difficult place’ u-turn

Former F1 driver Johnny Herbert has hailed the impact Christian Horner had when he entered the sport, following on from the "difficult place" Jaguar found itself in. 

Red Bull entered the pinnacle of motorsport in 2005 after purchasing the financially struggling Jaguar F1 Team from Ford, with Horner having led the Austrian outfit from the very beginning. 

Over the past 20 years, Horner turned what was a Jaguar backmarker squad into one of the strongest outfits on the grid, alongside co-founder Dietrich Mateschitz and motorsport advisor Helmut Marko. 

The trio took Red Bull to the front of the grid, with huge success having been claimed at first with Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber as its drivers. 

Vettel won four consecutive F1 drivers' titles from 2010-2013, before Max Verstappen's current run of four titles in a row. Alongside the eight drivers' titles Horner has overseen, six constructors' championships have been won. 

Despite his shock exit as Red Bull's team principal, Herbert agrees that Horner will go down as one of the greatest team bosses the sport has ever seen.

"Well, of course, there are and have been so many successful people over the years. And he's one of those because of what they created," Herbert told RacingNews365 during an interview.

"It was Christian and Helmut and Dietrich Mateschitz and all the crew that were part and parcel of that journey, with all the success that they had with Sebastian [Vettel], with Max and Mark Webber being part of that, and all the other drivers that have been there. 

"Some have been positive, some have been not quite as good as they wanted, but it has been a very impressive partnership. When Christian came along from when it was Jaguar, and then they changed that all around, because that was sadly in a very difficult place at the time. 

"But they turned it around and then created this team, not through being a, as we know, sort of a car manufacturer, but it was just an energy drinks company that had a passion for the sport. 

"And Mateschitz was always very much passionate about Formula 1, and they were very much focused on making it work for the brand, and that is what they were able to achieve. And Christian was a very important part of that."