'Not a Football Team,' Ex-F1 Team Boss Warns Red Bull over Turnaround After Christian Horner Exit

Red Bull Racing is going through a period of upheaval. The energy drinks giant decided to sack Team Principal Christian Horner amid a massive performance slump. Milton Keynes hopes to turn things around with new team boss Laurent Mekies at the helm. However, former Haas F1 boss Guenther Steiner believes that things cannot change instantly for the Austrian giant.

The team’s parent company Red Bull GmbH has not been happy with the current situation. There have been persistent rumors of escalating tensions within Milton Keynes. Moreover, the on-track performance has dipped massively. So much so, Max Verstappen has already given up on the 2025 title fight.

The energy drinks giant wants to kickstart a new era post-Horner. It seemed that it was time to move on from the 51-year-old who led the team since its first season all the way back in 2005. Though, Guenther Steiner asserted that unlike the world of Football, change can’t be so sudden in Formula 1. Previously, he had even questioned the timing of Red Bull’s decision.

Steiner claimed that Red Bull was not going to see a massive impact of Christian Horner’s exit at least in the short term. The Italian-American highlighted that while in Football, the arrival of a star player or a new manager can change a team’s prospects, this was not the case at the pinnacle of motorsport. The former Haas boss asserted that it takes years for a team to be good in the sport, and even a decline does not happen so quickly.

In the short term, there is not a big impact either way. They are racing cars. It’s not a football team that you bring a new player in so in the next game, you have got the new star or new talent there. If an [F1] team is good, it takes years to get bad. But also, if you’re bad, it takes years to build up to be good again.

Guenther Steiner said on Business of Sport podcast

No ‘spike’ at Red Bull after Christian Horner’s exit

Horner’s successor Laurent Mekies has a lot on his plate as he tries to fill Christian Horner’s shoes. The new team must work on fixing the underlying issues of the car, while ensuring that he can retain Max Verstappen for next season. Moreover, the 2026 rule change is just around the corner, with Red Bull producing its own power units for the first time in Formula 1.