09/07/2025 16:45
Former F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone has been left stunned by the
sudden departure of Christian Horner from his role as team
principal of Red Bull Racing. Ecclestone and Horner are long-time
allies and friends, to such an extent, the latter was mooted as a
potential replacement for the former before Liberty Media took over
the sport in 2017. Ecclestone has confirmed to RacingNews365 that
he only spoke with Horner on Monday, and there was no mention made
of any impending exit. It underlines the speed the Red Bull board
has acted in removing Horner from his positions, as he also served
as CEO. After expressing his sadness at Horner's exit, speaking to
RacingNews365 , Ecclestone said: "It must be something very
serious, in my opinion. "I spoke to him the day before [on Monday]
and he didn't know. Well, he might have known, but he didn't tell
me. "It was a normal conversation. We were talking about Max
[Verstappen]. Nothing to do with this, otherwise he would have told
me." In particular, Ecclestone could not understand why Horner has
gone midway through the season. "All I know is the message the
whole world has got, which is, he's been fired, effective
immediately," said Ecclestone. "It's the effective immediately I
don't understand. Why would they ask him to leave with immediate
effect? It's like he's murdered somebody. "You can understand, if
you're going to fire somebody, then you'd have a chat before and
you'd come out with something like, 'We've agreed to part company',
or something. "But to come out and say, 'You're fired with
immediate effect', he must have done something a bit drastic for
that to happen. "Let's assume they were unhappy with the results,
which I can understand, that's one thing, but to be fired
immediately, that's a different thing altogether."
