12/07/2025 13:50
Ralf Schumacher believes Christian Horner's failure to replace
senior Red Bull figures meant it was time for him to "leave" the
team. Horner was sacked on Wednesday after 20 years at the helm of
Red Bull, to be replaced immediately by Racing Bulls boss Laurent
Mekies. The longest-serving team principal in F1, Horner, has been
placed on effective indefinite gardenning leave after being removed
from his "operational duties" but remains employed by Red Bull.
Since 2023, senior figures in the team, including chief technical
officer Adrian Newey, sporting director Jonathan Wheatley and chief
designer Rob Marshall, have all left, with Red Bull suffering a
noticeable drop in car performance and in its pit-stops and
handling of races. As such, Schumacher believes Horner's failure
to replace the key figures who have left spelt the end for him at
the Milton Keynes-based team. "You have to say that Christian
Horner had an incredibly successful time at Red Bull, for 20 years,
with many titles," Schumacher explained on Sky Sports Germany.
"There is a lot of respect for his achievements, but of course,
there was a big private issue in recent years, and then, on, the
whole issue became a bit unmanageable and a lot of people left the
team. "Horner just failed to rebuild this team, to get new people,
and that is why it was time [for him to leave]. "In the end, it
was really that he was no longer able to attract good people. They
didn't want to come because of his personal problems. I think
that's why Red Bull finally wielded the axe. "He reorganised
everything, created a new number one [technical lead in Pierre
Waché], accepted that Adrian Newey would leave the team because
Horner thought Waché could do better in designing the car, and it
didn't work out. "Red Bull is going backwards, and Max Verstappen
is about to leave. "You have to remember that Red Bull was always
the young team, a bit revolutionary in the very beginning. That has
changed a bit now with Horner, who has a different management
style."
