Red Bull still feeling Horner's exit a year after team shakeup
NXTbets Pro | Published On: July 9, 2026
Horner exit
Red Bull’s decision to remove team principal Christian Horner still defines the team a year on. His departure ended a 20-year run at the top of the organization and closed the book on a stretch that began when he joined Red Bull’s Formula 1 team in 2005. Under Horner, Red Bull became one of the sport’s dominant forces, winning eight drivers’ championships and six constructors’ titles. That record gave Horner real weight inside the team, and his exit landed as more than a routine leadership change. It came after a long internal power struggle and reflected a fight over governance and control as much as it did any issue tied to lap times or race results. Horner’s farewell at Red Bull’s Milton Keynes headquarters underscored the scale of the break. He delivered an emotional speech to factory staff and left visibly upset, a stark end to a tenure that shaped the team’s identity from the start of the modern Red Bull era.
Mekies structure
Laurent Mekies stepped into the top role after Horner’s removal, moving up from sister team Racing Bulls into the main Red Bull job. The switch marked a clear change in how the team wanted to operate. Red Bull moved toward a tighter management structure in Milton Keynes, with Red Bull Austria pushing for a setup where no single person held total control of the team. That shift mattered because Horner had spent two decades as the central figure in the operation. The new structure spread authority more widely and changed the rhythm of decision-making inside the organization. Mekies inherited that environment and the pressure that came with it. Red Bull wanted leadership that could steady the team without recreating the same concentration of power that defined the Horner years. The change also signaled a broader reset in how the company viewed the balance between the racing team, senior management and the people directing the program from the factory base.
Red Bull changes
The post-Horner period brought mixed results on track and in the garage. Red Bull struggled to keep pace with McLaren early in the 2025 season, a sign that the leadership change landed during a difficult stretch for performance. Even so, the team showed resilience under Mekies. Red Bull also began its partnership with Red Bull Ford Powertrains during the transition, adding another major layer to the organization’s long-term plans. The driver lineup shifted as well. Yuki Tsunoda was demoted during the past year, and Isack Hadjar moved into the second Red Bull seat alongside Max Verstappen. That change came with its own pressure, since Verstappen finished two points short of a fifth world championship in the 2025 Formula 1 season. The narrow miss added to a period in which the team lost important personnel to rival outfits and Verstappen’s dissatisfaction and uncertainty about his future grew. The leadership change was meant to create stability, but the year that followed showed how much Red Bull still had to manage, both on the stopwatch and inside the organization.
