Ever since the team's formation in 2025, Horner has been steering the ship, with Red Bull claiming an impressive eight drivers' and six contructors' titles.
But now Horner has been compared to an infamous Star Wars character by Battlestar Galactica star Katee Sackhoff, who has become a huge F1 fan in recent years.
When asked about F1 stars as 'Mandalorians', a spin-off of the Star Wars saga, which she also starred in, the actress was left in no doubt over who Horner compared with after naming one of the biggest villains of the Star Wars series to fit the Red Bull chief's profile.
"I feel like Christian Horner - he's a little Palpatine", she told the Red Flags podcast.
"Everybody loves an underdog, and then, you know, you surpass that, and then you win all the time, and then everybody loves to hate you. So I'm very aware that that my animosity towards Christian Horner is just that I don't want them to win anymore.
"We have to admit that the 2023, season was so boring. But then again, I was not watching back when Lewis [Hamilton] won seven. Yeah, so I can't say... was it similar?"
Sackhoff was referring to Hamilton's period of dominance prior to Red Bull's return to form in 2021, when his Mercedes team won eight constructors' championships in a row from 2014 to 2021, with Hamilton winning six world titles along the way to add to his 2007 McLaren triumph and Nico Rosberg winning another for Mercedes in 2016.
Red Bull enter 2026 having only finished third in 2024, a poor season covered only by Verstappen's championship win as McLaren ended the season as champions and with plenty of momentum.
That means the big question for F1 2025 is will Horner's Empire strike back, or can Hamilton lead a Return of the Jedi redemption arc with Ferrari?