Ralf Schumacher has issued a sharp critique of Christian Horner’s leadership after Red Bull’s turbulent 2025 F1 season, arguing that the former team principal helped push the team toward instability before being removed from his role.
Horner’s exit followed months of friction inside the organization. Red Bull went through prolonged off-track turmoil early in the season, then replaced him during the summer. A leadership reset coincided with a clear performance improvement. The team stabilized, Max Verstappen regained consistency, and results improved across the second half of the year.
Speaking on the Backstage Boxengasse podcast, Schumacher said that the internal power struggle and breakdown of leadership left Red Bull fighting far below its potential.
“Horner practically tore the team apart. Red Bull fought its way towards mediocrity. For a while, nothing worked at all,” he said (via OE24)
For Ralf Schumacher, the division inside Red Bull was defined by two competing centers of power: Christian Horner on one side, and Helmut Marko and the “Austrian” structure on the other. He argued that Marko focused on continuity, driver development, and keeping Verstappen protected through the turbulence, while Horner’s direction unsettled the team.
After Horner’s departure, Laurent Mekies stepped into the role, and the situation changed dramatically. The car became more competitive, and Verstappen scored eight podiums and six wins. At the end of the season, Marko himself was also let go, closing the door on the long-standing leadership group that had shaped Red Bull for two decades.
On Marko’s exit, Schumacher added:
“Helmut has lost some of his position because he’s no longer needed there. But we’re sorry about it because we value his honest and open nature. And he’s landing on a soft surface.”
With Red Bull now entering a new era, Schumacher believed that the internal reset came too late, while Horner’s period in charge left lasting fractures. Christian Horner, meanwhile, has been linked with future leadership and ownership-aligned roles elsewhere as the next commercial cycle approaches.
Helmut Marko claims Red Bull would have been champion if Christian Horner had been removed earlier
The debate around Red Bull’s 2025 season did not end with leadership changes. Helmut Marko added his perspective after his departure, suggesting Max Verstappen would have secured the drivers’ title had the team acted sooner. The Dutchman finished only two points behind Lando Norris after a late surge, despite trailing by more than 100 under Christian Horner’s reign.
The turnaround came after the summer phase and coincided with car developments introduced around Monza, which had already been planned earlier. Verstappen converted that stability into wins and regular podiums, bringing Red Bull back into the title convers//ation.
Marko, however, believed that the decisive shift came from removing disruption at the top.
“We had to do something because our on-track performance was lagging. Had we done that sooner, by the way, we would have gotten things back on track faster this year, and Max would have become world champion. I’m absolutely convinced of that. But those last years with Horner weren’t pleasant. Dirty tricks were played,” he said to the De Telegraaf.
Marko framed Christian Horner’s final stretch as politically driven and corrosive, while insisting the team lost crucial development time because of off-track battles.
Red Bull enters 2026 without Horner and Marko, entering a major technical shift. The team will race under the new regulations with its RB Powertrains unit approved and aligned with the FIA framework, marking the first time Red Bull fields its own in-house power project in the modern era.
Edited by Hitesh Nigam
