Christian Horner's relationship with a former Spice Girl has made him a household name. Photo: Getty Images/Mark Thompson
Christian Horner — showman Red The Bull team principal who led the all-conquering era of Formula 1 and became almost as famous as his drivers.
Exuding self-confidence Horner was only 31 years old when he took over as director in the team's first phase. started in Formula 1 in 2005. Since then he has won seven drivers' championships and six constructors' championships. However, it was the era of sports documentaries and his marriage to a former Spice Girl that made Horner a household name, as instantly recognizable as even his best driver Max Verstappen.
Horner's bitter rivalry with Mercedes' Toto Wolff was revealed in the Netflix series Drive to Survive, with cameras following their every move to give them an unlikely profile that now extends beyond Formula One.
The exchanges between the pair were box office in 2021 when Verstappen snatched the championship victory from Lewis Hamilton in Abu Dhabi. Horner has since relished his role as a villain for Hamilton fans. “Mercedes have screwed up,” he said on Sky's League Of Their Own in December. “They left poor Lewis on tires that lasted most of the race, and we raced with Max, so he was on new tires.”
A year ago, at the race In a wide-ranging interview with Telegraph Sport, Horner joked that after that race, “to the average Lewis fan, I’m probably something of an antichrist.”
“But I don’t apologize for standing my ground » team,» he added. “I protect them and wear my heart on my sleeve. I know we didn't cheat last year. I am 100 percent happy with this.”
When not racing, Horner travels to the Red Bull plant in Milton Keynes, where he is also chief executive of Red Bull Racing, Red Bull Powertrains and Red Bull Advanced Technologies. In total he has around 1,500 employees.
“I also think people forget that Red Bull Racing is an incredible success story for this country too,” he previously told Telegraph Sport. “Of course we are Austrian and we are proud of it. But we are a British team with a British leader and 85 per cent of our workforce must be British.»
Horner has become a face synonymous with the sport's modern era, having not missed a single Grand Prix, even through illness, since 2005. When he turned 50 in November, Verstappen gave him one of his racing helmets.
However, Horner is often portrayed as the bad guy by F1 fans in this country. Aside from the controversial nature of Verstappen's 2021 title win, the budget cap scandal, where Red Bull was found to have overspent and was hit with a $7 million fine and restrictions on aerodynamic testing, didn't help.
But the view that Horner is too complacent and self-satisfied is strongly rejected by his wife Geri Horner [née Halliwell], a former pop singer and now a children's book author.
“What I know about my husband is that he is a good person, an honest person and cares deeply about his team and the sport,” she said last year. “He's actually a very straightforward guy. He's a racing driver through and through.»
The Horners' high-profile relationship came under scrutiny, with reports emerging that Horner's parents were initially unhappy with the way his relationship with his former partner Beverley ended shortly after their wedding. birth of daughter Olivia. Horner says it's all over now.
Horner married Halliwell in Bedfordshire in 2015 and last year he said the relationship between his ex-wife Geri and their children was now «absolutely harmonious».
Horner and Halliwell, pictured in 2021, married in 2015. Photo: Getty Images/Mark Thompson
Away from Formula 1, the Horners became interested in horse racing, building new stables for 14 horses, including two stalls for foals, at their home in Oxfordshire. They have also hired a full-time trainer, former jockey Maxine Philby, to run their yard.
Horner, himself a former Formula 3000 driver, has joined the team of Red Bull, the Austrian energy drink maker. when he entered Formula 1 under founder Dietrich Mateschitz, who died in October 2022.
Horner's long-term plan for Red Bull and immediate success helped secure superstar drivers and young prospects, including Verstappen. Having received an OBE in 2013, he was appointed a CBE in last year's New Year honors list after Red Bull won all but one Grand Prix for the 2023 season.
Horner is now the sport's oldest team principal but remains one of the youngest as Formula 1 prepares for another major test of his abilities. A new car for this season will be revealed in the coming weeks, but the 2026 season, which will feature more electric power as well as 100 percent green fuel, will be the great unknown for Horner and his contemporaries.
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