Christian Horner suggests major reason why Red Bull is ‘unpopular’

Christian Horner believes part of Red Bull being disliked in F1 is its recent success and defeating British drivers, despite being based in the United Kingdom.

The team principal of the Milton Keynes squad maintains the "best way to become unpopular is to win", which he points out has become habitual for the six-time F1 constructors' champions since joining the paddock in 2005.

Having witnessed significant change behind the scenes in F1 since then, he recently defended Red Bull from "keyboard warriors", something that has grown ever-more prevalent with the advent of social media.

Hostility has also spread to race tracks and other F1 events, like the F175 season launch held at the O2 Arena in London in February.

At that event, Horner was welcomed with a chorus of boos when he appeared on stage, even though British himself. The jeering was in stark contrast the adulation British teams and drivers received.

Nonetheless, he insists he has "always operated" the same way, regardless of whatever feelings that might invoke from his rivals, the media and F1 fans.

"Inevitably, you’re not going to be able to please everybody," Horner told PlanetF1.com. "Things get played out in the media and so on. But I’ve always been the same person.

"I’ve always operated the way I operate. I expect 100 per cent, and I’ll give 100 per cent.

"But sometimes that makes you unpopular with your rivals. The best way to become unpopular in this business is to win, and we’ve done a fair amount of that over the last few years."

British beating British

In just over 20 seasons at the helm of Red Bull, Horner has overseen 124 grand prix victories, the most of any team in the 21st Century, as well as eight drivers' championships to go with the six constructors' crowns.

The titles have come during two distinct periods of domination, first at the hand of Germany's Sebastian Vettel and most recently with Dutchman Max Verstappen.

Furthermore, both beat British drivers in their respective spells of success, which Horner feels is part of why Red Bull is not as popular as other British-based teams.

"Of course, there’s an element of that," the 51-year-old said. "Since David Coulthard, we’ve never had a British driver.

"We won four times with Sebastian Vettel, who beat Lewis [Hamilton] and Fernando [Alonso]. We’ve done it again with Max, who obviously beat Lewis in 2021, and then Lando Norris and George Russell last year.

"So we’ve never been sort of a home favourite, being an Austrian-owned team, despite being very British-centric in being based in Milton Keynes just up the road from Silverstone."