Former F1 owner Ecclestone reveals what he thinks was Horner’s downfall

Bernie Ecclestone counts Christian Horner as one of his closest confidantes in the Formula 1 paddock, but the billionaire didn’t mince his words when asked about his friend’s firing from Red Bull.

Horner was the championship’s active longest-tenured team principal when he was unceremoniously sacked earlier this week after 20 years in the role. It followed a high-profile sexting scandal that engulfed Horner 18 months prior and set in motion a string of key departures from the team. 

“This business that he got involved with 18 months ago, he was just an idiot,” Ecclestone told The Telegraph while discussing the scandal on Thursday. “He was a 50-year-old who thought he was 20, thought he was one of the boys.”

Horner was twice cleared of claims of sexual harassment and coercive behaviour, though a highly-publicised cache of WhatsApp screenshots allegedly featuring messages between him and a female employee caused a global media storm and serious embarrassment.

Ecclestone, who has made several disparaging comments about women through the years, had little sympathy for the woman who accused Horner of inappropriate behavior. “I often wonder, when these situations happen, why if the girl is so upset with the advances of someone, they don’t just say, ‘Oi you, stop it,’” he said.

The 94-year-old went on to detail how the Red Bull big wigs at the energy drink company’s Austrian headquarters felt that too much power was concentrated in Milton Keynes with Horner. “It would probably have been better if they had said, ‘Come in, Christian, sit down,’” he said.

“But the bottom line is that there are people there who thought he was getting away with things, that he was acting as if it was not the Red Bull Ring, but the Christian Horner Ring. He got away with so many things. And all the time you’re delivering, people close their eyes. But when you stop delivering, people start looking. One or two begin thinking, ‘Well, I could do a better job.’”

Ecclestone also noted the power struggle that took place within the company in the wake of Red Bull co-founder Dietrich Mateschitz’s death in 2022. “Genuinely, it was a little bit of a muddle,” Ecclestone said. “Christian was the chief executive. If I’m the chief executive of a company, I want to be in charge. I want to do all the things that I think are right, and if I’m wrong, they can fire me, they can say, ‘Sorry, bye-bye, you made a few mistakes.’

“So, the minute Christian can’t be in that position to do what he thinks should be done, then for him it’s not easy. You can’t half-manage something. You need to have someone, I always say, to turn the lights on and off. You only really need one person.”

Ecclestone theorised that Horner’s insistence on playing a key role in all areas of the business led to his downfall: “I know it was suggested to him he should be a team manager and leave the commercial side to somebody else.

“His idea was, ‘I am the chief executive.’ [But] you get very few executives who can do everything, from engineering to public relations. He had been running the company the way he thought it should be run. For a long time, people were prepared to say, ‘OK, fair enough, he’s getting the job done.’ But as soon as you go off a little bit, people look and say, ‘Hang on.’

“Christian won a lot of championships. He was used to winning. So, it’s not easy when you’re not winning – and when you know that it’s not entirely your fault.”