Red Bull Racing's CEO and team principal, Christian Horner, has been sacked by the company following the team's regression in form over the last two seasons.
The Brit, who has been a fixture of Red Bull's journey and success, has been dismissed with immediate effect, with Laurent Mekies making the step up from Racing Bulls to take over the role of CEO of the squad.
This follows a divisive 18 months for the team which saw Horner accused of inappropriate behaviour by a female colleague, before those allegations were dismissed.
However, the 2024 season then proceeded to see key personnel depart Red Bull, including their sporting director Jonathan Wheatley and eminent designer Adrian Newey.
That, coupled with a downturn in form, which saw Red Bull go from winning four of the first five races, last year, to slipping to fourth in the constructors' championship this season, has seen Horner's position come under threat.
The subsequent tensions with the team has also yielded the possibility of its star driver, Max Verstappen, departing in a saga that has no conclusive answer as of yet.
Though the exactness for Horner's departure has not been confirmed at this moment, it will mark a sudden shift for the team, given that the 51-year-old has been a cornerstone of their two eras of record-breaking success: between 2010 and 2013 with Sebastian Vettel, and in the last five years with Max Verstappen.
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A seismic moment in Red Bull Racing's history
For the first time since the team's inception, in 2005, the constructor have changed team principal.
Their first race and points (at the 2005 Australian Grand Prix); their first podium (2006 Monaco Grand Prix); their first pole and win (2009 Chinese Grand Prix); first championships (2010) and for all of their success since, Christian Horner was there every step of the way.
Seen by many as too young for the role two decades back, becoming the sport's youngest-ever team principal in the process, Horner had helped transition the team from the 'jokers' of the paddock to the one that everybody wanted to beat.
He helped recruit some influential figures, like Adrian Newey, and helped to build the dynasty that dominated the sport in the early 2010s and the partnership that they and Max Verstappen have enjoyed in recent times.
But the winning has stopped and the divisions have grown. The decision to clear his name from the intra-company scandal of early-2024 has evidently done little to thwart the acrimonies from breaking out.
In the wake of the passing of the company's founder, Dietrich Mateshcitz, in late 2022; Horner's rift with the Verstappen camp, and Helmut Marko, had clearly grown. This, among all the exits and decline in performance, had rumours swirling that his job was still under threat.
Regardless of what happens next (Verstappen's potential departure) this is yet more confirmation that the team's regression is a sudden and scarcely believable one. They won 21 out of 22 races in 2023, the highest percentage of any team ever in a season, but that form feels like a lifetime away just two years later.
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