{"id":280980,"date":"2025-07-21T21:54:15","date_gmt":"2025-07-21T21:54:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/280980\/"},"modified":"2025-07-21T21:54:15","modified_gmt":"2025-07-21T21:54:15","slug":"zak-brown-not-surprised-by-christian-horners-red-bull-sacking-as-mclaren-chief-twists-knife","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/280980\/","title":{"rendered":"Zak Brown \u2018not surprised\u2019 by Christian Horner’s Red Bull sacking as McLaren chief twists knife"},"content":{"rendered":"

McLaren chief Zak Brown has admitted he is \u2018not surprised\u2019 by Christian Horner\u2019s Red Bull sacking as he offered a theory on his rival\u2019s dismissal\"ZakZak Brown addressed Christian Horner’s sacking<\/p>\n

McLaren chief Zak Brown has admitted he is \u201cnot surprised\u201d by Christian Horner\u2019s Red Bull sacking<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Horner was dismissed as Red Bull\u2019s team<\/a> principal and CEO earlier this month after 20 years in charge of the team<\/a>. The 51-year-old had been at the helm of Red Bull\u2019s F1 team since their introduction to the grid.<\/p>\n

But poor performances on track and behind-the-scenes drama that played out for the world to see appeared to have piled too much pressure on Horner.<\/p>\n

Horner and Brown have been fierce adversaries over the past two years since McLaren reemerged at the front of the F1 grid and wrestled Red Bull\u2019s dominance away from them by winning the Constructors Championship last year.<\/p>\n

Speaking on Canadian television channel TSN, Brown said on Horner\u2019s sacking: “I’m maybe [surprised by] the timing, but not the result.<\/p>\n

\"McLarenMcLaren wrestled away Red Bull’s dominance<\/p>\n

“I think there’s been a lot of drama there the last couple of years, and it doesn’t seem like that drama has been calming down – maybe been getting worse.<\/p>\n

“So, I’m not surprised, anytime in the middle of the season. But we’re head down on our championship. They’ve got Max [Verstappen] still knocking on the door, so we’ve got to pay attention to that. But, yeah, tremendous amount of success they’ve had.”<\/p>\n

Brown suggested that given Horner\u2019s age and success in F1, he could return in a leading role at another team on the grid.<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cI think given his age and his history in motor racing, I\u2019d be surprised if he didn\u2019t show up somewhere in motor racing.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I don\u2019t know his other interests, whether he wants to go run a football team or what have you. We\u2019ll see.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"FormerChristian Horner was let go by Red Bull(Image: PA Wire\/PA Images)\"\"Don’t miss a thing with sport updates!<\/p>\n

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Horner\u2019s dismissal has been linked to the future of Max Verstappen as speculation mounts over the four-time world champion making a blockbuster move to Mercedes amid Red Bull\u2019s struggles.<\/p>\n

Brown addressed the speculation but distanced himself from getting involved in any saga concerning Verstappen\u2019s availability. He said: \u201c(I) couldn\u2019t be happier with Oscar and Lando.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, sure to be the interested spectator. I\u2019m very happy with my driver line-up. So, I don\u2019t want to spend any time on other than what pops up on my phone.\u201d<\/p>\n

Former Racing Bulls team principal Laurent Mekies has been promoted into the Red Bull hot seat ahead of the Belgium Grand Prix this weekend.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"McLaren chief Zak Brown has admitted he is \u2018not surprised\u2019 by Christian Horner\u2019s Red Bull sacking as he…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":280981,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4103],"tags":[24994,4199,707,7182,4200,749,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-280980","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-f1","8":"tag-christian-horner","9":"tag-f1","10":"tag-formula-1","11":"tag-formula-one","12":"tag-formula1","13":"tag-red-bull-racing","14":"tag-sports","15":"tag-uk","16":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114893453056431560","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280980","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=280980"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280980\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/280981"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=280980"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=280980"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=280980"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}