Brown has suggested that Horner shouldn’t be feeling comfortable in his role as team boss at Red Bull, saying that he would “feel vulnerable” if he was in Horner’s position.
In a relationship that Brown himself has acknowledged by saying there’s “no love lost” between himself and Horner, the American has put forward the theory that Horner shouldn’t be feeling comfortable in his role as team boss of Red Bull.
Horner has been the one and only team boss of the Milton Keynes-based squad since the team entered Formula 1 in 2005, overseeing eight Drivers’ World Championships and six Constructors’ Championships in the two decades since.
Red Bull comes into the F1 2025 season off the back of another Drivers’ Championship with Max Verstappen, who is bidding to make it five consecutive titles this year, while also attempting to return to the top of the Constructors’ after a difficult year in 2024 with a troublesome RB20.
Last year proved a huge challenge for Horner, who not only had to contend with several senior members of staff leaving for new opportunities elsewhere but also had to endure the scrutiny of an internal investigation by Red Bull parent company GmbH following allegations into his behaviour by an employee.
Horner was exonerated twice, by two separate external KCs, but the headaches didn’t stop there as, coinciding with the team’s performance taking a downturn, chief technical officer Adrian Newey left the team to take some time off before accepting a new challenge with Aston Martin.
Alongside this, sporting director Jonathan Wheatley handed in his notice in order to become team principal of the Sauber team ahead of its takeover by Audi, while long-time engineering chief Rob Marshall took up his new role at McLaren to make an impact on the 2024 season.
While there was better news by way of the extensions of contracts for the likes of technical director Pierre Waché, aerodynamics chief Enrico Balbo, and chief engineer Paul Monaghan, as well as Verstappen’s race engineer GianPiero Lambiase – who was also promoted to head up race engineering – 2024 represented something of a transitional year for Red Bull.
As a consequence of that, Brown believes Horner’s position within the team shouldn’t be one he takes for granted.
“I would think any of us would come under pressure when you are not performing at the highest level, on-track, off-track, with sponsors, relationships, and brands,” Brown told the Press Association in Shanghai.
Referring to the F175 season launch in London, at which Horner was booed by the largely British audience,
“If I went to the F1 launch and I wasn’t welcomed, and I came back to the table and I am sitting next to the CMO of our sponsors’ OKX and Mastercard, that is not a great look.
“You have got the Red Bull GmbH managing director (Oliver Mintzlaff) sitting there. And then you have got the Verstappens who don’t seem to have a great relationship (with Horner), from the outside looking in.”
With several senior members of the team leaving, Brown said, if roles were reversed, Horner would be in for a grilling from his board.
“Adrian Newey, Rob Marshall, and Jonathan Wheatley have all left and if I was in that position, I would feel vulnerable,” Brown said.
“When I go and meet my board, I would not be feeling great because they would be going, ‘Well, why did he leave? Why did he leave? And why did he leave?
Oh, and by the way, you didn’t seem to get a very warm welcome at the launch’. I don’t know how they feel. But I would feel vulnerable.”
While Horner hasn’t engaged with Brown’s one-sided war of words, the Red Bull team boss was recorded airing his true feelings on an episode of Netflix’s latest season of Drive to Survive.
The footage shows Horner walking back into the Red Bull hospitality unit in Bahrain last season following a tense press conference alongside Brown, with Horner succinctly saying, “Zak is a p****k” to his press officer.
Last week, Brown spoke of his feuding rivalry with Horner to the UK’s Telegraph, saying, “Oh, it’s genuine. There’s no love lost there. I don’t like how he rolls and no doubt he feels the same about me.
“But I think it’s good for the sport. You need different characters. You need these rivalries. Some are friendly, sporting rivalries. Some are a bit more vicious. It’s always been like that.”
Horner is on a long-term contract with Red Bull, with his current deal set to see him remain in charge until 2030. Under the scrutiny of last year’s internal investigation, Horner is understood to have retained the full support of both sides of Red Bull’s shareholding – the Thai side through Clalerm Yoovidhya, majority shareholders with 51 percent, and Australian shareholders headed by Mark Mateschitz, son of the late owner and founder Dietrich.
Brown’s comments emerged on the same day as he and Horner were placed in the same FIA press conference in China, in which both were asked to comment on the quality they most admire in the other.
“I mean, obviously the results Red Bull have put up—what has it been now, 20 years? They’re pretty awesome, right?” Brown said.
“And we’re in the results-oriented business. They’ve won a lot of races, a lot of championships—pretty awesome.”
Horner’s response was, “I think there always has to be respect, and you have to respect competitors’ performances. I think McLaren obviously turned their season around last year. They did a very good job.
“They’ve built on that and they look like the car to beat this year. So credit where credit is due. Everybody operates in different ways.
“Every team has a different style—style of management, style of going racing. That’s part of the appeal and attraction of Formula 1. You get fans that follow their teams and their drivers accordingly. But I always think that it’s important to have respect where respect is due.”
