Christian Horner is the longest-serving team principal for a single team in the current F1 grid. However, he is not the only top-key member at Red Bull who has been working there for years.
Chief advisor Helmut Marko and CTO Adrian Newey have been at Red Bull as Horner for almost identical years. Together they have built the team from being a small outfit in the mid-2000s to one of the most dominant sides in the sport.
The mantra behind this is to keep believing in the top people at their disposal and allow them to create a force without the fear of losing jobs. Even in the lean patches, Red Bull has kept them and given profitable returns.
The other teams on the grid have been lacking that. Maybe Mercedes have a similar philosophy and have been more successful than Red Bull. So there is a talk about whether others should follow the same modus-operandi to ensure success.
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Christian Horner critiques Ferrari for believing little in Mattia Binotto
Ferrari sacked Mattia Binotto after the end of the 2022 season as the team principal. Despite being a rival, Horner shows sympathy with the Italian, as he thinks he did a good job, but his team showed little faith.
“It has been interesting to watch the movement. I’ve sympathy for Mattia because, ultimately, he’d done a good job. Last year, that was a big step forward from where they had been, so that must be tough for him after the long service he had given to Ferrari,” said Horner.
Binooto, as of now, has been given a good amount of gardening leave to Binotto so that he doesn’t give his vital technical services to a rival side. Apart from being a team principal, he was also holding the post of technical director.
A team might manage to find a good team principal. But it’s hard to scout an excellent technical director as most teams make them go for a gardening leave once they leave, which is the same case with Binotto.
Fred Vasseur steps in
Binotto was soon replaced by former Alfa Romeo team principal Fred Vasseur for the job. Though Ferrari reportedly looked for many candidates, including Horner, for the job, he rejected it. In the end, Vasseur seemed like a suitable replacement.
But the Frenchman hasn’t shown radical changes in the team. He prefers to go with the current workflow and doesn’t shake up the fundamentals Binotto left in the team.
Project 675, which will be Ferrari’s contention for the 2023 season, has shown positive feedback on the simulator. Binotto led the whole programme. But alas, he isn’t there to execute it any more.
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