Exclusive: Horner speaks openly about troubled Red Bull period

Christian Horner has spoken of the "tremendous support" he received from both his family and the Red Bull team after a turbulent year, in an exclusive RacingNews365 interview.

On-track, Horner guided Red Bull to nine grand prix wins and landed the team its eighth world drivers' champioship as Max Verstappen became a four-time champion, equalling the tally of Alain Prost and Sebastian Vettel.

However, off-track, it was a rocky year for Horner, with 2024 starting with the team principal and CEO of the team being placed under formal investigation by the Red Bull GmbH parent company after allegations of inappropriate behaviour were made against him.

Horner has always completely denied the allegations against him, with a senior barrister dismissing the claimaint's case against Horner after a thorough investigation. But on the eve of the new season, a dossier purporting to show evidence was leaked to senior F1 figures and media.

The story threatened to overshadow the Bahrain opener, won by Verstappen, as tensions rose within Red Bull with the Dutchman indicating that if powerful ally Helmut Marko was moved aside not of his own accord, he would consider leaving the team. 

After a second win in Saudi Arabia, the tensions cooled as Verstappen would rattle off seven wins from the first 10 races to give him a healthy lead in the standings, but Horner highlighted the backing he received.

"You've got to stick to your own principles and beliefs," he exclusively tells RacingNews365.

"I had tremendous support from within the team. Whilst there was a lot of noise in the paddock, whenever you cross the red line into the garage, it was business as normal. 

"You never give up, you find out who your friends are and 100% [I did not consider stepping down], but it is a year I wouldn't like to repeat.

"I think sitting here in December with the results that we've achieved is testimony to the strength and depth that we have in the team.

"I just believed in myself and the process and and my focus was to ensure that we kept winning, and we kept kept delivering.

"I've had tremendous support from my family and my wife and at the end of the day, that's the most important thing."

Exclusive Horner interview

After the investigation was over, Horner had to deal with the departure of Adrian Newey as chief technical officer, who had served since 2006.

Coincidentally, just after Newey ended his involvement in the day-to-day F1 operations, the RB20's form collapsed, with the nadir coming at the Italian GP, where Verstappen branded the car "a monster" and "undrivable" as he finished sixth.

His chances of defending the title at this point appeared slim before a late rally enabled him to take a stunning win in Brazil, winning the title in Las Vegas before adding some gloss with a strong Qatar victory.

Horner believes that the adversity the team faced brought the best out of it.

"It's certainly been a challenging year, but we've seen our driver defend his fourth drivers World Championship, have won nine Grand Prix, qualified first nine times, even though he didn't start from pole position on nine times and have won four sprint races," he said.

"It's been a strong campaign from the team, and particularly from Max, to get those kind of results, which are more wins than any other team in the pit-lane.

"Sometimes in adversity, of course, others look to capitalize on it, but it does galvanize the team. 

"And I felt that's what happened this year. The team has looked to optimize performance even when we didn't have the fastest car, we still had to deliver strong strategies, strong pit stops, reliability, and all those elements. 

"In latter races, we've been able to get performance back onto the car and see the results start to come back, with the two victories in the recent races.

"Off track, a couple of high profile people left, the car was not performing through the summer months, so there was quite a lot to contend with.

"And in the background, we are preparing a new engine for 2026, so it's been a challenging year."