The controversy which surrounded Red Bull team principal Christian Horner earlier this year “had an impact” on their staff, according to a long-serving ex-F1 engineer.
Julien Simon-Chautemps, whose F1 roles included three years as Kimi Raikkonen’s race engineer, believes the allegations around Horner’s behaviour influenced the departure of Red Bull’s long-serving chief technical officer Adrian Newey.Horner was cleared of inappropriate behaviour towards a team member by an internal investigation. The employee’s appeal against the decision was dismissed in August.
Some of Red Bull’s rivals linked the departure of Newey, widely regarded as F1’s best designer, to the investigation of Horner. McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown said in May Newey is “a very high-integrity individual” and “I’m not surprised he’s moving on.” Horner firmly denied claims the two were connected.
“A lot of people have said it, but I’m a firm believer that a Formula 1 team needs a very good technical director, but he’s not doing everything on his own. Adrian had a lot of people around him, very good people in Red Bull, I’m thinking of Wache as a technical director, he has a lot of really good guys in aero, and I doubt he would have been able to win all these championships on his own. So yes, an extremely important guy in the organisation, but he’s not the only answer to the success.”
He also doubts the team’s slump in performance since the mid-season is a consequence of Newey’s departure, which was announced in May.
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“Red Bull were winning relatively easily, very easily last year. The rules haven’t changed that much for ’24. If you look at the development path of an F1 team it’s quite flat because, yes, you can improve and compete, but it’s quite difficult to make a huge improvement.
However Simon-Chautemps said his sources at the team indicate the allegations surrounding Horner had a “negative impact” behind the scenes.
“Add to that everything that happened at the beginning with Christian and what happened internally, for having been part of the team, you’re talking about 1,000 people, for sure it has influenced people negatively and I wouldn’t be surprised to hear that a big part of Adrian’s decision was what happened with Christian at the beginning of the year and how the whole story was dealt with.
“I’m not here to judge and it’s not my position to judge, but I know a lot of people in Red Bull and I know for a fact that it had an impact on how people worked and what they thought about and for sure it had a negative impact.”
Red Bull has also announced the departures of other key members of its operation this year. Sporting director Jonathan Wheatley will move to Sauber next year and head of strategy Will Courtenay is heading to McLaren. Newey later confirmed he will join Aston Martin.
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Jungle
9th November 2024, 13:09
As long as it all doesn’t keep him up at night. Thats the main thing. Didn’t the old tyrant leave his previous wife with a young family to spice up his life…
Mog
10th November 2024, 2:03
Pregnant wife. Yes.
MichaelN
10th November 2024, 15:08
The news was never about Horner being a disreputable character. As you note, he has a record. If the F1-viewing public knows, I’m sure everyone at Red Bull is well aware. But the way he and his fellow men at the top of RB handled his latest (?) rejection was the issue, and it’s easy to see why that would have rubbed people the wrong way. Even to the point that some decided to move elsewhere. It’s of course easier to do so for the senior people, who no doubt have standing invitations from multiple other teams, than it is for Random Mechanic #60.
Jungle
11th November 2024, 9:37
My point was really directed at whether I think he has a care factor on the impact of his decisions…
Tristan
10th November 2024, 14:26
Eh, not at issue in the slightest. It’s not about his personal life. He did something at Red Bull that made a lot of people want to leave a winning, if not the most successful F1 team ever by some metrics.
pcxmac (@pcxmac)
12th November 2024, 12:41
you dont know that. you are just repeating the mindless brainwashing the media puts out.
nobody is talking about why they are really leaving, and chances are those people who are ditching rbr, its probably for the betterment of rbr in fact. who should be leaving rbr is jos verstappen.
pcxmac (@pcxmac)
9th November 2024, 16:49
What goes around, comes around … Toto Wolff.
Tristan
10th November 2024, 14:34
What does Toto have to do with any of this?
pcxmac (@pcxmac)
10th November 2024, 16:42
Toto, meet Jos, … Jos, what would you do to secure your son’s legacy in the new Mercedes inspired power format ?
To be honest, I have quite a bit of experience working and living around toxic people, who lie, and sabotage, and Jos was clearly sabotaging RBR with respect to this issue specifically.
And if you really feel hard pressed to ask for truth, ask yourself, why would Jos throw Horner under the bus by meddling with one of RBR’s employees, in allegedly a romantic affair. Why would he continuously go on the media signaling the end of RBR, when his own son is the favored driver ? Its pretty obvious what was going on, and who Jos was hanging around, who hates Horner, and RBR’s success, and what would be done to ensure the fall of RBR in order to profit a guy @ Mercedes, who just happens to have a large stake in the Liberty-F1 paradigm, and whose clutches seemingly fall by the wayside further and further through poorer and poorer technical efforts, brought on most likely through the necessities of corrupt administration (political correctness).
Tristan
11th November 2024, 5:01
It’s as tin-foil hat as most of the stuff I say… I just can’t believe if this were the case, that Horner wouldn’t be proceeding with defamation. Could be they just want the story to go away, but most people I think in this situation would want their name cleared and the reward for the damages if it was just meddling from Jos.
pcxmac (@pcxmac)
12th November 2024, 12:44
why would horner publicly attack the father of their star driver.
thats what closed doors and lawyers are for. non disclosure agreements.
facts are facts, jos verstappen did sabotage his son’s team, and there are very few reasons why he would have done that.
RH
15th November 2024, 20:57
No more tinfoil than your comments though.
Paul Grainger
10th November 2024, 1:26
For clarity, this guy never worked at Red Bull Racing or with Christian Horner. Just a random opinion from the paddock.
Sham (@sham)
10th November 2024, 7:26
A blindingly obvious opinion that anyone who follows F1 outside of the track action can see – Horner is one of those men who always thinks the grass is greener on the other side of the fence.
These types of men often end up in these sort of situations where their libido gets them into trouble – it’s just usually less public.
They also often end up alone and miserable after women get fed up with them, but that’s not likely in this case – because sadly, even in 2024, there are people who gravitate towards wealth and power over all else.
An Sionnach
10th November 2024, 7:52
Sad mud slinging. An accusation is not the same as guilt. Whether we are guilty or not, evidence must be a requirement for a prosecution of any kind. Too bad many in the public gallery sharpen their pitch forks based on what they want to be true rather than what they know for a fact. In this supposedly more informed age, prejudice should be even less excusable.
Jay
10th November 2024, 8:34
Well said!
Tristan
10th November 2024, 14:19
There has been enough evidence to my mind, and what little testimony (through third parties) has been aired is extremely compelling.
Believe Women.
pcxmac (@pcxmac)
10th November 2024, 16:54
sad indeed. That’s all they have, lies, allegations, slander, and mud. Because they know what they really are, what they slop around in, and what they need to do to get by in life.
Jos was used, the assistant that Jos was messing with, whom Horner most likely did cross a line with, was used, all by the same interests, those interested in ruining Red Bull Racing.
Ask yourself, who wants to ruin Horner / RBR in the short term ? Answers are Porsche, Toto Wolff, ‘the Austrian gang’, Jos.
Then ask yourself, what do these guys with clear motives have to benefit.
Porsche – control over the team.
Jos – Priority @ Mercedes or more control over affairs at RBR
Toto – Less competition, easier to manipulate and control the affairs of “F1”
‘the austrian connection’ – More control over Red Bull.
What is the nexus, if there was more of a conspiracy of all parties ?
Liberty has no real competition, Toto is safe at Mercedes, Porsche and the rest of the stake holders find ways to make the racing more fake and contrived, where wins are divided up about the teams in an effort which is completely fake and shambolic. More money for a guy whose dad, he is not even half the measure of.
Rich people have a habit of chasing the least path to ground as well, especially if they are vultures / parasites. And in this time and age, they are prolific.
baasbas
10th November 2024, 17:44
Thanks that is not what I got from the (now garbage) article
Peat Smoke
11th November 2024, 8:45
What Horner controversy? Did he party with P Diddy or something?
The article is based on words of a guy who has never worked at Red Bull, but allegedly has sources there… “Objection hearsay!”
Mayrton
11th November 2024, 9:14
I agree this was never a story that should have made any headline in the first place. Feeding it seems agenda driven.
Tristan
11th November 2024, 10:00
He allegedly prevented his personal assistant/secretary from working with him because she had the audacity to say no to his extra-marital affair when it became clear he had no interest in a relationship with her, so who knows under what pretense the relationship began.
pcxmac (@pcxmac)
12th November 2024, 12:46
probably not. the sooner you realize how hard the media pedals lies the better off you will be for it.
Tristan
13th November 2024, 20:27
You are wrong. The media does not just peddle lies. Defamation exists, especially with the amount of money thrown around in F1 and how lawyered up everyone is.
There’s a reason the media has generally been so quiet other than the few stories at the time.