Red Bull team boss Christian Horner has labelled the current generation of F1 team principals as \u201ca bunch of managers,\u201d a vastly different group to that he joined in 2005.<\/p>\n
Horner\u2019s tenure in F1 has netted eight drivers\u2019 championships and six constructors\u2019 crowns and afforded him a front-row seat for what has been a gradual changing of the guard up and down the paddock.<\/p>\n
Christian Horner: Modern team bosses lack the \u2018entrepreneurial spirit\u2019 of previous generations<\/p>\n
Additional reporting by Thomas Maher<\/p>\n
Horner is the longest-serving team principal, having taken on the top job at Red Bull Racing as it entered F1 when Dietrich Mateschitz acquired the under-performing Jaguar outfit.<\/p>\n
It was a wildly different era, with a number of teams struggling financially; Red Bull purchased the failing Minardi operation to save it from extinction, rebranding it Toro Rosso in 2006.<\/p>\n
There were no financial regulations in place, and prize money payments were heavily skewed to the established, successful teams such as Ferrari and McLaren.<\/p>\n
The paddock was also filled with large personalities, often with decades of experience and significant skin in the game.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I came into the sport, sitting around the table was Bernie Ecclestone running it with Max Mosley [FIA President],\u201d Horner told PlanetF1.com, in an exclusive interview.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou had Ron Dennis running McLaren, Frank Williams at Williams, Jean Todt at Ferrari, and Flavio Briatore running Renault. Eddie Jordan was still around when I first started, and they were big personalities and big characters.<\/p>\n
\u201cYes, there were always disagreements, but there was a commonality of agreeing on what was right for the business, and what was right for the sport, because they were all relatively entrepreneurial.\u201d<\/p>\n
Today, there is vastly less experience, and most team bosses are employees.<\/p>\n
\u201cNowadays, you look around the room and, save for a few, it\u2019s largely a bunch of managers, as opposed to perhaps that entrepreneurial spirit that existed previously,\u201d Horner said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere were always rivalries; I mean, Jean and Ron never particularly saw eye-to-eye, but there was always respect that, sometimes, I think is a little lacking these days.\u201d<\/p>\n
More on Red Bull in Formula 1<\/p>\n
\ud83d\udc49 Inside Red Bull: Christian Horner and the other major players in Red Bull\u2019s hierarchy<\/a><\/p>\n