Christian Horner on F1 absence: ‘This is why people will now see a different side to me’

For Christian Horner, after 14 world championships, two decades and one frenzied ride in Formula 1, it has been an unprecedented period of serenity.

“I did 405 races in succession,” he tells me straight off the bat, dialling in on a video call with The Independent from his home in Highgate, North London. “This is really the first time in 35 years that I haven’t been on that hamster wheel.”

And it’s the simple things away from the “brutal” schedule of top-tier motorsport – your parents’ evenings, your kids’ sports matches, life in the slow lane – which the 52-year-old is not only embracing but relishing. “Whether it was walking my son to school this morning, when I would normally have been in Singapore, or not missing my daughter’s birthday tomorrow, which I obviously would have done before, it’s those little things that you appreciate,” he says.

“And I think they appreciate them, too”. Turns out, life in the slow lane is not that bad after all.

It has been 15 months since Formula 1’s ultimate love-him or loathe-him figure, who took charge and developed Red Bull Racing from the “fizzy drinks team” into the modern-day F1 juggernaut, was unceremoniously booted out as team boss. A job he loved, savoured and is yet to receive a specific reason for losing.

We speak off the back of the one-off race in Malaysia at the start of October, when Max Verstappen claimed Red Bull’s first victory as an engine supplier. That project, in partnership with Ford, was ambitiously launched by Horner, who admitted a sense of pride upon seeing his old colleagues bask in victory once more.

“Very few people can understand the scale of that challenge,” he says. “For a group of people within five years to have taken on the best in the industry and won a grand prix on their 16th start is outstanding. I had some wonderful messages from within the team – it was very gratifying.”

A career high point, a year on from the tumultuous final 18 months in charge of Red Bull. “The higher you rise, the sharper the knives,” his wife, Spice Girl pop star Geri Halliwell, told him amid a period shrouded in turmoil off the track, in contrast to triumph on the racing line. After allegations of controlling and coercive behaviour levelled at him at the start of 2024 from a female colleague, which Horner always denied and which were twice dismissed by independent lawyers, the man himself is now having his say in his new book, Drive.

“What doesn’t break you makes you stronger,” he says, matter-of-factly, looking back on a chapter which saw him dominate the front pages more than the back. “It was a difficult period. In life, there are always going to be challenges and you’re always learning. Now for me, it’s about asking what comes next.”

Seldom has Horner opened up and been so frank about his final few years at the Red Bull helm. From his lawyer asking “are you sat down?” when the initial allegation was made, to the “strange feeling” at the back end of his time as team boss – with those knives sharpening to breaking point – Horner gets as much off his chest and onto paper as realistically viable.

But throughout it all, one constant theme is palpable throughout the 320 pages: the unwavering support from his wife, Geri.

“She was phenomenal,” he acknowledges. “As your wife, as your partner and as your friend, she showed incredible support and strength. Of course, it’s always your partner that you offload your bad days, as well as your good days. She’s been an absolute pillar of strength and has always been quick to offer perspective.”

Beyond the scandal, there is heaps of insight and anecdotes to absorb. Horner speaks candidly about his failed attempt at making it as a driver and the moment Juan Pablo Montoya’s aggressive line into a corner in Estoril made him realise he was not cut from the same cloth. He retired, aged 25. At that juncture, plenty would have set their sights away from motorsport. Plenty do. Not Horner.

Taking charge of Arden Motorsport, he experienced waves of success in Formula 3000. Then, encouraged by Bernie Ecclestone, he joined forces with Red Bull’s otherworldly attempt to get into motorsport. In 2005, he became the sport’s youngest-ever team principal at the age of 31.

“I never felt I was out of my depth” he recalls. “I just broke things down and approached them in the way I always had: finding sensible solutions to whatever problems there were.

“The scale of Formula One was different from anything I’d experienced previously, but the problems were all very much the same. F1 is a people business, sharing a common goal and vision and working as a team.”

Persuading design guru Adrian Newey to join Red Bull in year one (Horner speaks in fascinating depth in the book about Newey’s exit from the team, 20 years later) was the catalyst for the success that followed. Eight drivers’ championships – four with Sebastian Vettel, four with Max Verstappen – and six constructors’ titles make Horner one of the most successful team principals of his generation. He is one short of arch rival Toto Wolff’s tally of 15 titles.

His first of each era, 2010 with Vettel and that infamous 2021 finale with Verstappen, are the ones that stand out. “I think of 2009, too, because it was the first year we were really competitive,” he says, recalling Jenson Button limping to the title with Brawn. “If that season had gone on longer, we would have won.

“But 2010 was so special because it was the realisation of actually having a world champion. Then obviously 2021, after all of Mercedes’ dominant years, you couldn’t have scripted what happened there. It was insane and an incredible sense of achievement.”

A constant confidante throughout it all was F1’s former kingmaker Ecclestone: godfather to Horner’s daughter, Olivia. Horner was also best man at Ecclestone’s wedding to current wife Fabiana. A friendship built on trust, sprinkled with a bit of old-school joshing.

“Bernie would often drop things into conversations to diffuse the tension,” Horner says. “He was very good at coming up to you just before a grand prix and telling you: ‘Don’t scew it up!’

“That was probably not the advice you needed at that moment in time, but it created a bit of levity. He had a way of doing that, and it was always very Bernie.”

The pair now both have a watching brief. Horner, who received a £67m payout from Red Bull, admits he still tunes in for most qualifying sessions and race-days, albeit as he joins the chorus of dissenters of this year’s “overly complex” set of regulations. His only return to the paddock since leaving the sport came at Silverstone this year, where he was mobbed from all quarters.

Inevitably, speculation about his next move is a constant topic of discussion. Waves were made a few weeks back when Horner declared Ferrari was “the dream” job and the only organisation he’d join without a stake in the team – a condition he has previously publicised.

“It was all taken out of context because I was trying to be respectful to the Ferrari brand because they are different to other teams,” he says now. Less a backtrack, more a frank assessment. “It’s the longest-standing team and the most prominent team in Formula One and they’re not going to sell equity in it.

“It coincided with comments from drivers internally and then you put two and two together and come up with eight. From my perspective, there’s 11 teams in Formula One. There’s potentially a 12th entry.” Hint hint. “But I’m not in a rush to do anything.”

Be that as it may, could Horner really be content with not running a Formula 1 team ever again? As well as Ferrari, he has been closely linked with Alpine and Aston Martin. “Look, I’ve had a great run in the sport, I’ve got a healthy win ratio,” he says. Indeed, the back of his book reads: 405 races, 287 podiums, 124 grand prix victories, 14 world championships.

“It would have to be for the right project. I still love the sport. I enjoy the competition. I love working with people, but it would need to be the right team. Otherwise, I’m content doing what I’m doing at the moment.”

Current undertakings include consultancy work for Oakley Capital, now the major shareholder for Ben Ainslie’s GB1 America’s Cup team. He has also attended MotoGP this year and, alongside Geri, owns eight racehorses.

But most pertinent is his role as the present father to 13-year-old daughter Olivia, nine-year-old son Monty and step-daughter Bluebell, 20. None of whom, to Horner’s paternal relief, want to follow their dad into motorsport. He actually says in the book that he is now “very aware of his own mortality”, a nod to the tragic loss of his former partner Beverley Allen, mother to Olivia, last year from eye cancer at the age of 58.

“It must be enormously difficult as a parent watching your child racing and particularly at levels like Formula 1,” he says. “It’s one of those sports with true jeopardy. I would only encourage them to follow their dreams. Being Formula One drivers doesn’t seem to appeal to them.”

And what does Horner want readers of his new memoir to take away from his own topsy-turvy experience? “There’s the ups and the downs and all the challenges that life throws at you,” he signs off. “But you brush yourself down, you pick yourself up, and you go again.

“I hope people see a different side to me than what is portrayed, particularly through some of the documentaries that exist! I’ve tried to lift the lid on the real person behind the team uniform.”

Drive by Christian Horner will be published by Bantam on 22nd October. Available for pre-order here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1911754785 | Christian will be sharing stories from the book on tour across the UK from 17-26 October. Tickets are available here: https://www.nothird.co.uk/live-shows/christian-horner/