Red Bull power struggle rumbles on as Horner 'wants control' of F1 team

Christian Horner has had incredible success in Formula 1 as Red Bull team principal – but Sky Sports pundit David Croft thinks he is annoyed by the lack of power he has compared to Toto Wolff.

Horner joined the team when they entered the sport in 2005 after the Austrian energy drinks company bought Jaguar, becoming the youngest team principal at that time.

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First starting life as a midfield team, Red Bull propelled themselves up the grid after the 2009 regulation changes and have gone on to win seven drivers’ world titles – four from Sebastian Vettel and three from Max Verstappen – and six constructors’ championships.

Verstappen achieved the team’s 100th pole position at the Chinese Grand Prix and after subsequently winning the race with team-mate Sergio Perez finishing third, the team have registered 117 victories and 272 podiums.

Croft: Horner wants control at Red Bull

In recent years, Horner has had an intense rivalry with Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff, especially during the 2021 championship battle between Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton.

Along with Wolff also having amazing success in the sport – overseeing eight drivers and constructors’ titles – the Austrian is also the co-owner of the team, holding a 33 percent stake.

And speaking on the Sky Sports F1 podcast, commentator Croft believes Horner ‘wants control’ in the team to make decisions in the same way Wolff can as team owner.

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“The one thing that I think is always going to wind Christian up a little bit as well is that for all the success at Red Bull, for all the titles, the trophies, the race wins that they’re enjoying at the moment, Toto Wolff is a co-owner of a Formula 1 team and Christian Horner isn’t,” he said.

“And I don’t think that goes down very well with Christian. I think if you said to him, ‘Would you like to be a co-owner of that Red Bull team?’ Of course he would. He wants control. He wants power and Toto’s got that because he is a one-third owner of Mercedes.

“And Christian Horner, he might be a CEO and he might be a team principal, but he’s a paid employee of the Red Bull Formula 1 team, so he hasn’t got that autonomy to make decisions in the way that Toto has and I think a lot of the animosity on Christian’s side maybe stems from that. But I think Toto also knows how to wind Christian up as well.”

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