Christian Horner

After his reported £80m payoff, is there a road back to F1 for the Red Bull chief, asks Barbara Ellen

- Barbara Ellen

Is Christian Horner the most divisive character Formula One motor racing has ever seen? When he finally left the Red Bull team this week, his departure felt like the culmination of a long goodbye. Known to millions of viewers for his appearances on the Netflix F1 docuseries Drive to Survive, the 51-year-old former team principal was axed shortly after the British Grand Prix at Silverstone in July, and divested of his Red Bull director duties in mid-August.

Allegations of "inappropriate behaviour" and "coercion" involving texts between Horner and a female colleague (now working on another team) were made public last year. Lead Red Bull driver Max Verstappen's father, Jos, with whom Horner had a fraught relationship, wanted him removed. However, I'm told this may have been less significant than other factors: the complex power struggle with Austrian parent company Red Bull GmbH, the loss of key personnel including designer Adrian Newey, and the decline in form with McLaren overtaking Red Bull as the dominant F1 team.

Horner's severance package is reported to be around £80m (although some close to the action reckon it's more like £60m): a lot, even for a sport as wealthy as F1. But then, Horner was with Red Bull since its inception. At 31 he was the youngest team principal, he was paid £10m a year, and he had a contract running until 2030. He also succeeded against the odds. As the sports writer George Simms tells me: "Horner was in the era when it was just Mercedes and [driver] Lewis Hamilton winning everything year after year, and everyone was just bored of it." Over his two decades in charge, Horner shattered Mercedes' dominance, leading Red Bull to eight Drivers' Championships and six Constructors' Championships as well as 124 race victories.