After the news broke out of Christian Horner’s ‘se*ual’ misconduct, Red Bull has been in the headlines ever since. The Austrian team is presently under the hottest fire after clearing Christian Horner from the allegations, only to see messages get leaked hours later.
Amidst the doubts of Red Bull’s ‘justness’ in the investigation, there were rumors that RB CEO Oliver Mintzlaff wanted to fire Christian Horner following the alleged ‘s*xual’ misconduct charges.
Did Oliver Mintzlaff plan to sack Christian Horner?
Oliver Mintzlaff—the former football CEO who supervised RB Leipzig’s rise to Germany’s Bundesliga—was assigned CEO of Red Bull Racing back in 2022. As the latest CEO, Oliver Mintzlaff has been doubted due to his role in Christian Horner’s case, which took a major turn when messages got leaked right after investigation being concluded.
As for Mintzlaff’s role, the Red Bull CEO was highly in favor of getting rid of Christian Horner, even before the investigation started.
According to a report by F1-Insider, Mintzlaff was one of the Austrian Red Bull officials—that included Mark Mateschitz as well—who preferred sacking Christian Horner immediately, and even prepared a press release for the official announcement.
The report by F1-Insider reads, “The Austrian decision-makers at the beverage company around Mark Mateschitz (he inherited the 49 percent from his father, the company’s founder Dietrich Mateschitz) and CEO Oliver Mintzlaff would rather get rid of Horner today rather than tomorrow.”
The report also states that Mintzlaff couldn’t fire Christian Horner, due to the 51-percent Thai owners of Red Bull, which is led by Chalerm Yoovidhya.
Chalerm Yoovidhya, who considers Christian Horner as a foster son, has played the game-changing card in favor of Horner, and allowed his continued role as Team Principal at Red Bull Racing.
It is also rumored that Oliver Mintzlaff was so willing to dismiss Christian Horner that he was looking for replacements immediately after hearing the news.
Oliver Mintzlaff wanted to step in and replace Christian Horner?
Oliver Mintzlaff’s eagerness in firing Christian Horner was easily seen in the rumors of him preferring to step in and take over as the Team Principle of Red Bull Racing.
According to a report from Times (back from the pre-investigation period), there were possibilities that Mintzlaff could have played a power card and appointed himself in place of Horner, in case he was proven guilty and fired as a result.
A statement from the report clearly hinted at this by quoting: “Red Bull staff ‘remain in the dark about what exactly is happening’ and ‘can only speculate if the intention is to remove Horner from his position or to make a power play that leads to a senior figure [possibly Oliver Mintzlaff] from Salzburg taking a more active role in the all-conquering F1 team.”
Despite the report being unconfirmed, it is crystal clear that Mintzlaff was one of the favorites, including other Red Bull officials like Jonathan Wheatley and Adrian Newey, in the race to replace Christian Horner as Team Principal.
Amidst this chaos and turmoil, Christian Horner will still be at the Red Bull paddocks on 9th March at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, whether Mintzlaff likes it or not.
Can Christian Horner be fired by Mintzlaff from the Red Bull camp this season? Can Oliver Mintzlaff be a good fit to replace Horner? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.
