“I’m Standing in for Sebastian Vettel”: When Christian Horner Replaced Red Bull’s 4-Time Champ at Goodwood FoS

The 2024 Goodwood Festival of Speed (FoS) was the 30th edition of the iconic motoring event and it was jam-packed with historic cars and famous racing drivers. However, four-time world champion Sebastian Vettel dropped out of the event owing to a family holiday.

The former Red Bull driver was supposed to reunite with his old pals — David Coulthard, Daniel Ricciardo, Max Verstappen, and Adrian Newey — for the 20th-anniversary-celebrations of the Milton-Keynes based team by driving his 2012-title winning car — the RB8 — up the Goodwood hill.

With Vettel opting out, it meant that team boss Christian Horner had to draft himself into the car. “I haven’t driven a Formula One car since 1993 and I’m standing in for Sebastian Vettel. So, what could possibly go wrong,” Horner said in a video uploaded to the team’s official YouTube channel.

In fact, Horner had not driven any of the Red Bull cars in the past. But to prepare him for the FoS run, the team decided to run him in a pre-Goodwood shakedown at the Silverstone circuit with the RB7.

Silverstone shakedown ensured Horner’s FoS run went smoothly

All in all, Horner’s drive in the RB8 up the iconic Goodwood Hill went pretty smoothly. The 51-year-old was very nervous about stalling the car but managed the clutch well and saved himself from the embarrassment in front of thousands of fans and his own team’s employees.

Horner’s wife, Geri Halliwell, was also in attendance. Seeing the nervousness on her husband’s face, she decided to impart two words of advice before he rolled out, “Don’t crash!”

After the successful run, Horner was quoted as saying, “Having never driven a Red Bull car before, it’s a hugely proud moment to drive a car that had been designed and built by all the men and women in Milton Keynes, and we won our Championship with it in 2012.”