Christian Horner has already made his feelings clear on Sebastian Vettel amid Red Bull replacement rumours
Horner is no longer Red Bull team principal after 20 years – and rumours are already swirling about what happens next.
Christian Horner has made his feelings clear on Sebastian Vettel amid reports that the four-time F1 champion could take a senior role at Red Bull.
Vettel, who won his four titles with Red Bull between 2010 and 2013, revealed last month that he had held preliminary talks over replacing Helmut Marko as an advisor to the team.
Horner, meanwhile, was sacked as team principal last Tuesday after a 20-year association with the F1 powerhouses.
While Laurent Mekies has replaced him as CEO, F1 reporter Erik van Haren has reported that Red Bull could yet appoint another figure in a senior managerial role.
Should Red Bull fast-track their plans and appoint Vettel, it would represent a return to the sport for the popular German after he retired as a driver in 2022.
Horner claimed last year that Vettel would be ‘very good’ in a managerial role given his talent at being ‘annoyingly good at everything he does’.
But in the book ‘Growing Wings: The Inside Story of Red Bull Racing’, written by journalist Ben Hunt, the 51-year-old gave a fascinating insight into Vettel’s personality.
Horner recalled one of his first meetings with a then teenage future four-time champion, who was BMW Sauber’s reserve driver but had connections with Red Bull as a junior driver.
“While he was delivering in Formula Three [in 2006], that was when he really came to our attention,” Horner began. “Red Bull had this joint tug of love over with him with BMW.
“Before then, I first met him when he came to the factory one day. He’d gotten in his BMW and driven all the way from Germany to Milton Keynes to ask for a look around.
“I was just very impressed with this young guy who turned up uninvited and said, ‘Hi, I’m Sebastian Vettel. Can I have a look around?’
“He’d literally just rocked up and was very polite and we showed him around and he was very grateful.
“After that, whenever he turned up at the factory he did so with boxes of Swiss chocolates for the receptionist and the secretary.”
Horner continued: “He knew what he wanted in terms of support and was really into the details. He was shrewd. He knew the people who could help him and he would really put in the effort with them.”
Vettel would eventually sign for Red Bull from the beginning of 2009, with Red Bull having won the ‘tug of love’ over BMW.
The German debuted for BMW at the 2007 United States Grand Prix replacing the injured Robert Kubica, but Red Bull were able to offer him a quicker pathway to F1 with their junior Toro Rosso team.
Vettel then took his maiden F1 victory at the 2008 Italian Grand Prix.
He departed Red Bull for Ferrari from 2015, spending six seasons in Maranello before ending his career with a two-year stint at Aston Martin.