Here is the thing about Formula 1: friendships forged over two decades of dominance can apparently shatter at the first sign of trouble. As Crash.net reports, former Red Bull team principal Christian Horner has opened up in his new book Drive—published on 22 October in the UK—with some genuinely explosive accusations against his former colleague and friend Adrian Newey, widely regarded as F1’s greatest ever car designer.
The pair's bond ran deep. Newey acted as an usher at Horner’s wedding to Geri and is the godfather to Horner’s 12-year-old daughter. But Horner writes that this loyalty did not go both ways when the team's performance began to slide, ultimately culminating in Newey being sacked after last year’s British Grand Prix.
I was never given a clear explanation other than that they felt [the team’s] performance had slipped a little,
“I had his back and believed that he had mine. But at the first sign of adversity, Adrian wanted to abandon ship,” Horner states, as per an interview with The Times. He added, “I felt very sad about that … I couldn’t rely on him any more. Our partnership was not as solid as I’d previously believed.”
It is a wild twist for Newey, who is now the Aston Martin team principal. Horner himself, of course, was shown the door by Red Bull too—a sacking that arrived 17 months after he was accused of sexual harassment and coercive, controlling behaviour by a female employee. Horner was twice cleared of those claims, and he maintains he never received a straight answer regarding his dismissal beyond vague statements about a dip in form.
“I was never given a clear explanation other than that they felt [the team’s] performance had slipped a little,” Horner explained. He pointed out the sheer absurdity of that rationale by noting, “Even though at the [previous] race we’d been on pole position and leading the British Grand Prix; had it not been for the weather, we’d probably have won it. And that they wanted to go in a different direction. When I really pushed - I had six years left on my contract - I was told that it was more Christian Horner Racing than Red Bull Racing.”
Thankfully for fans wondering if we have seen the last of him on a pitwall, Horner also confessed that a “dream” role at Ferrari is the sole job that could lure him back into the sport without an ownership stake.
