Christian Horner Boldly Claims Other Top F1 Team Should Be More Worried About Staff

Christian Horner Boldly Claims Other Top F1 Team Should Be More Worried About Staff

The last week of news has been relentless for Red Bull. The team confirmed the departure of Adrian Newey, as well as the shocking news that he would be able to sign with another team immediately, before heading to America for the Miami Grand Prix. Then Max Verstappen placed second in an upset, with McLaren's Lando Norris earning his first career F1 victory. Now, Christian Horner is fending off the vultures.

On Friday, McLaren F1 CEO Zak Brown spoke to reporters and suggested Newey may not be the last to leave Red Bull in the wake of the Horner sexual misconduct scandal from earlier this year. Per Motorsport.com, Brown said he was "not surprised" to hear of Newey's departure and more might follow in his footsteps.

"Am I surprised? Six months ago, I would have been surprised," Brown said. "But given everything that's gone on since the start of the year and knowing Adrian pretty well, and he's a very high-integrity individual, I'm not surprised he's moving on.

"I think the stuff that's going on there is a bit destabilizing. That's probably the first domino to fall, my guess is not the last based on the résumés that are flying around."

Brown went on to clarify that he meant what he said about the resumes and that his team has seen a noticeable uptick in applications to work for McLaren with all that's going on at Red Bull.

On Tuesday, Red Bull boss Horner finally got wind of the comments and responded that he is not very worried about it at all.

"I don't have any concern of the strength in depth. Of course, there is always going to be movement between teams," Horner said. "I don't know how many people we or have employed from McLaren this year. We have taken 220 people out of HPP into Red Bull Powertrains. So, when we are talking about losing people, I would be a bit more worried about the 220 than maybe one or two CVs."

He went on to note that it was "inevitable" for Brown and Toto Wolff, the Mercedes boss, to get involved. Horner said they "talk a lot" but he wouldn't get drawn into a back-and-forth.

The entire exchange does sound a lot like the captain insisting that, no, the water you see does not mean the boat is sinking and everything is fine. But there is not much else Horner can say. If he's to remain at the top of Red Bull he must project confidence that everything is going his way, even when it clearly is not. That's the job.

A win at the Miami Grand Prix would've put a lot of minds at ease. But with Verstappen finishing as the runner-up, Red Bull have a lot to think about before the Emilia-Romagna Grand at Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari in Imola, Italy.

Miami Grand Prix F1 Preview: Red Bull Uncertainty, Adrian Newey Exit Draw Intrigue

Miami Grand Prix F1 Preview: Red Bull Uncertainty, Adrian Newey Exit Draw Intrigue

For the first time in 2024, Formula One will arrive back in the United States for the third annual Miami Grand Prix. Here’s what to watch at the first of three American races on the calendar this season.

Changing winds at Red Bull

Max Verstappen may already be on his way to a third consecutive world championship, but behind the scenes, the dominant force in F1 is reaching an inflection point. The biggest domino to fall yet was this week’s announcement that renowned car designer Adrian Newey is set to depart Red Bull in early 2025 and cease his role with the F1 team immediately. 

The 65-year-old chief technical officer hasn’t been on the market in nearly two decades (he joined the Milton Keynes–based outfit in 2006), a period in which he won 13 world championships with Red Bull, and is sure to have a number of suitors. Atop the list is Ferrari, which appears to be mounting an all-out rebuild, highlighted by the signing of seven-time champion Lewis Hamilton to a multiyear deal. Aston Martin has also been mentioned in connection to Newey, as billionaire owner Lawrence Stroll continues to seek a meteoric climb up the grid for his team. Retirement from F1 is on the table too, though rival offers may simply be too enticing to turn down.

Newey’s departure is yet another bump for Red Bull off the track this year. Team principal Christian Horner was at the center of an external investigation into accusations of inappropriate workplace behavior before ultimately being cleared. Reports have suggested that Verstappen, who is under contract with Red Bull until 2028, has spoken with Mercedes about replacing Hamilton, though Toto Wolff dismissed the idea as just a rumor. Even Verstappen’s father said this week upon learning of Newey’s departure that  “the team is in danger of falling apart” and stressed the importance of having “key people stay on” to maintain his son’s success. Verstappen himself responded to the move Thursday, saying the designer’s exit would not have an immediate impact on his future with the team.

Turmoil aside, the 26-year-old is poised to win his third straight outing in Miami and the dominance on the track will go a long way in covering up the drama outside of the racing lines.

The battle for second place

While it appears Red Bull’s grasp on the grid’s top spot is secure, a jam-packed battle is taking shape just below. 

Ferrari (151 points in the Constructors' standings) has staked its claim as the No. 2 through five races, due largely to the best stretch of Carlos Sainz’s racing career. However, the Italian outfit missed out on a podium in Sunday’s Chinese Grand Prix, the day after Charles Leclerc said Sainz "went a bit over the limit” in defending against him during the sprint race. The incident was discussed internally, but it’s worth wondering if harmony can be restored between the two teammates in their final year together before Sainz is replaced by Hamilton.

Ferrari’s disappointment came in conjunction with a surprising standout performance from McLaren’s Lando Norris, who nabbed a second-place finish in China, splitting the Red Bulls.

Since a pair of fourth-place outings in Saudi Arabia and Australia, teammate Oscar Piastri hasn’t kept the same pace but continues to keep delivering points (38 this season). McLaren (96 points) has promised an update to the car this weekend in Miami that may give it an upper hand in the fight.

Further down the grid, Mercedes (52 points) has labored to start the year in a way that it hasn’t since 2012 when the team finished fifth in the Constructors' championship. Two DNFs in Australia certainly didn’t help. But like McLaren, Mercedes has promised updates to the W15 this weekend in Miami. There’s no telling exactly how large of a boost the team can implement at this stage of the year but with only one practice session to work out the kinks, Miami could be a hit-or-miss event for the eight-time champions.

Miami’s sprint debut

Fresh off of a sprint race in Shanghai, Miami will hold a sprint of its own for the first time in the grand prix’s brief history. The format will come into play six times in 2024, with Saturday’s event being the second so far this season. 

A sprint in Miami is particularly intriguing due to the challenges that the circuit presents. Last year, a catastrophic spin from Leclerc on his final lap in qualifying knocked Verstappen all the way down to ninth on the starting grid, while Haas’s Kevin Magnussen managed to nab fourth and Alpine’s Pierre Gasly landed in fifth. 

All that's to say, the Miami International Autodrome is no walk in the park and teams will have just a single practice under the new sprint format. After Friday’s morning practice, drivers will immediately be thrust into sprint qualifying in the afternoon and despite the fact that they’ll have another chance to get their setups right in qualifying for the grand prix on Saturday afternoon, there won’t be another low-stakes session to make tweaks. Given that a few teams are introducing upgrades, it’ll pay dividends to make adjustments early and quickly.

Formula One Driver Carousel: What We Know About the 2025 Grid Ahead of the Miami Grand Prix

Formula One Driver Carousel: What We Know About the 2025 Grid Ahead of the Miami Grand Prix

With five races already in the books in the 2024 Formula One season, the action on track is heating up. Max Verstappen and Red Bull have grabbed commanding leads in the drivers’ and constructors’ championships, but behind the scenes, the annual silly season has begun and the carousel of drivers has started to spin.

Before teams take to the grid Sunday at the third annual Miami Grand Prix, let’s take a look at what’s happened so far and what might be on the horizon when it comes to movement around the paddock for the 2025 season.

Who’s on the move

Heading into the season, a handful of seats were already predetermined. Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri will continue to form one of the most fearsome young duos on the grid at McLaren, George Russell will remain at Mercedes, and Alex Albon still has one year left on his deal with Williams. As for the contracts signed in 2024 … 

Lewis Hamilton (Ferrari, multiyear deal)

It’s not every day that a seven-time world champion decides to depart from the outfit where he made his case to be the greatest driver in F1 history. However, Hamilton had previously maintained that driving for the Prancing Horse was a lifelong dream and he’ll now get the chance to close out his record-setting career in what could be perhaps the biggest challenger to Red Bull for the foreseeable future.

This year hasn’t been what Hamilton envisioned with Mercedes and he’s currently ninth (19 points) in the drivers’ standings going into Miami. When he joins Ferrari in 2025, the 39-year-old may have his best—and last—chance to dethrone Red Bull and break the stalemate with Michael Schumacher by winning an eighth world championship.

Fernando Alonso (re-signed Aston Martin, multiyear deal)

Consistency is everything in F1 and it’s hard to think of a more consistent force in the paddock than Alonso. Dating back to last season (his first with Aston Martin), the 42-year-old has scored points in 24 of 27 races and finished on the podium eight times. 

Team owner Lawrence Stroll has shown a commitment to spending in order to compete in the upper echelon of the grid and keeping Alonso around into the start of the new regulations in 2026 only reinforces that mindset. At that point, along with the addition of new Honda power units, Aston Martin will hope to be well-positioned as a real championship contender.

Nico Hülkenberg (Sauber, multiyear deal)

The latest domino to fall came without much fanfare, in part because reports and rumors had connected the 36-year-old F1 journeyman to the new Audi project for weeks. Hülkenberg also did little to silence the whispers.

Assessing what the outlook for Hülkenberg and Sauber (which will become Audi in 2026) is in the short-term is difficult. The German driver has been a presence in the sport dating back to 2010 but has never stood on a podium. That’s not to say that he hasn’t done a remarkable job at getting the most out of the least, as evidenced by scoring points in three of five races in this year’s Haas. What’s most intriguing here is what becomes of the two current Sauber drivers Valterri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu, especially should Audi continue to look outside of the current roster to round out its lineup.

Biggest chips still to fall

Carlos Sainz

From the moment that Hamilton announced his move to Ferrari and Charles Leclerc was revealed to be the team’s choice to keep in-house, the paddock began to wonder what would become of Carlos Sainz. The reveal also seemed to put a massive chip on the 29-year-old’s shoulder.

Sainz has outperformed Leclerc in nearly every race thus far this season, a fact even Leclerc acknowledged prior to the race in China. Had he not had a bout of appendicitis for the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, Sainz might very well be second in the drivers’ standings going into Miami.

What’s next for Sainz remains unclear, but he has options. Red Bull consultant Helmut Marko said the team was in discussions  with the Spaniard’s camp, but admitted that Sauber already had a “lucrative offer” on the table. Should Sainz continue this recent run of success, whichever team lands him for next year should consider itself lucky.

Mercedes’ Second Seat

Replacing Hamilton was always going to prove a difficult task for Toto Wolff and the Silver Arrows, but it’s all the more challenging to have to do so on short notice. Thankfully for Mercedes, Hamilton announced his decision early in the year, giving Wolff and Co. time to get to work.

The most seismic move would be finagling Verstappen away from Red Bull, an option Wolff admitted he’d be interested in earlier this season. The two-time reigning world champion is under contract until 2028, and Wolff recently dismissed rumors that Mercedes had spoken to Verstappen, so a second blockbuster probably isn’t on the way. But with renowned chief technical officer Adrian Newey on his way out at Red Bull, the 24-year-old Dutch driver may be starting to reconsider his future.

If Mercedes is looking for a proven option, Sainz or a reunion with Bottas seem to be the clear routes to take. One thing’s for certain: Wolff needs to make the right pick or he risks seeing his team fall further down the pecking order.

The Wide World of Red Bull 

If anything should feel certain in F1, it’s Verstappen in a Red Bull—though lately even that seems more unstable than ever—but as for the rest of the seats at the two Red Bull-affiliated outfits, uncertainty abounds.

Sergio Pérez’s grip on the second seat at Red Bull seems to change each weekend there’s a race, even though his start to 2024 (85 points) has been as strong as last year’s. When Marko confirmed that talks with Sainz had taken place, he even admitted that Pérez is the clear best option if he maintains his current form.

Turmoil at the front of the grid will also surely have an impact further down at RB, the team formerly known as AlphaTauri and Toro Rosso. Yuki Tsunoda and Daniel Ricciardo, the latter of whom has yet to score a point this season, have been mentioned for months as possible heirs to the second seat alongside Verstappen, but neither driver seems capable of grabbing the reins. As of now, neither driver is even under contract to return to RB, so without some sort of performance improvement, both could find themselves without a spot on the grid when the dance ends.

Names to keep an eye on

Sebastian Vettel 

Sure, the return of the four-time world champion seems unlikely given the apparent finality of his retirement following the 2022 season. However, Vettel himself cracked the door back open earlier this year, which immediately reignited the rumor mill. It’s hard to imagine the 36-year-old returning for a seat in the midfield, meaning there are only so many spots for him to land but it’s not out of the question.

Oliver Bearman

The 18-year-old made quite the impression in the paddock when filling in for Sainz at this year’s Saudi Arabian Grand Prix. A daring drive and seventh-place finish, ahead of both Norris and Hamilton, quickly established Bearman as an intriguing option for a seat in 2025. With Ferrari’s garage now full, Haas or another mid-to-bottom tier team should give the Chelmsford native a quality chance to develop.

Andrea Kimi Antonelli

A budding phenom in the Mercedes development system, Antonelli already got the opportunity to conduct an F1 test with the team at the Red Bull Ring in mid-April. Wolff pumped the brakes on any guarantee that the 17-year-old Italian would soon be making the leap to the grid, explaining that the test was a part of a monthslong plan to continue the young driver’s development. Nevertheless, Mercedes seems to see a future for Antonelli in F1—a future that may be closer than previously thought.

Another Red Bull Leader Departs, Causing More Max Verstappen Concern for Future

Another Red Bull Leader Departs, Causing More Max Verstappen Concern for Future

As Max Verstappen prepares to race in the Miami Grand Prix this weekend, another internal shakeup at Red Bull calls his future with the team into question.

On Wednesday, Red Bull confirmed legendary designer Adrian Newey would be departing from the team in the first quarter of 2025. The confirmation comes a week after reports emerged that Newey informed Red Bull of his desire to leave. Newey, who spent the last 19 years with Red Bull, released a statement once the news became official.

The team said he'll be immediately stepping away from any F1 duties to "focus on final development and delivery of Red Bull's first hypercar." Ferrari appear favorites to land Newey, who is free to join another team as soon as he's done at Red Bull.

A tumultuous year so far has called Verstappen's long-term standing with Red Bull into question. The superstar driver will hit free agency in 2028, with a rumored exit clause for 2024. Between Newey's departure and the Christian Horner scandal, Red Bull is in the middle of a whirlwind of chaos.

Verstappen's father, former racer Jos Verstappen, spoke to the media on his son's future earlier this week. After news of the Newey departure hit the racing world, he expressed his great concern for Red Bull to Erik van Haren of De Telegraaf. As translated by Racingnews365.com:

“The team is in danger of falling apart. I was afraid of that earlier this year,” Jos Verstappen told De Telegraaf. “For internal peace, it is important that key people stay on board. That is not the case now.

"Newey is leaving and earlier this year it also looked like Helmut would be sent away. For the future, that is not good.”

Red Bull are suffering one blow after another so far in 2024, and the team may be running out of time to turn it around. Regardless of what happens at this weekend's Grand Prix or any other race, Red Bull are on the clock to convince Verstappen to stick with the only team he's ever known.

Max Verstappen's Dad Hints at How Red Bull Can Win New Contract With Champion

Max Verstappen’s Dad Hints at How Red Bull Can Win New Contract With Champion

Over the next five years, Formula One could change dramatically. In that time period, the entire power supply ecosystem will be flipped on its head, Lewis Hamilton will have presumably driven for or still be driving for Ferrari, and reigning champion Max Verstappen could become a free agent.

Verstappen, once viewed as a longshot to leave behind the organization he has spent his entire F1 career with (first with Scuderia Toro Rosso, the sister team of Red Bull), now appears to be more of a flight risk. He has won three consecutive World Drivers' Championships and appears a strong possibility to earn his fourth in 2024. Going into Miami weekend, he is ahead of the No. 2 driver, his teammate Sergio Perez, by 25 points.

But despite powerful results on the track, lingering turmoil having to do with allegations of misconduct by team boss Christian Horner and other members of the team creates enough noise for doubts to start to creep in.

Verstappen's dad, a former F1 driver himself, recently spoke to the press and suggested there's an opportunity for Red Bull -- or, really, any team -- to prove Verstappen they're worthy of his continued involvement. Jos, Max's dad, gestured toward 2026 as the period to learn what might be next for Verstappen.

“He has a fast car, but we also have to look further to 2026, so we are letting everything come to us at the moment. We stay very calm and see what will happen,” Jos Verstappen said to RaceXpress as transcribed and translated by RacingNews365 recently.

That timeline lines up directly with new power supplies that will emerge when the FIA mandates technical changes to the regulations of the engines. Red Bull, who has seen much of its success come with a Honda engine, will switch to making their own engines for the new regulations in partnership with Ford. It makes it clear ... The car is fast now, but will it still be with the new engine?

Verstappen has declared he sees no reason for the team to panic over the change, but a failure to launch with a new engine in addition to some of the lingering turmoil with personnel could certainly lead Verstappen to more heavily consider other options when he hits free agency in 2028.

He also has a rumored exit clause that could lead to his departure in 2024. The clause is tied to Helmut Marko leaving the team.