Red Bull is set to put a promising new driver behind the wheel in the form of Christian Horner.
Yes, recently there was trouble again at the Red Bull Racing team. It has been restless all season now that it has become known that Christian Horner flirted with a subordinate. Who was also the fling of Jos Verstappen, Adrian Newey and probably 2Pac, if we are to believe all the rumours. We do not want to brush aside the suffering of the victim who is now at home, because you do not do that for fun.
Unfortunately, the reality is also that ‘F1’ has taken over the whole issue and it has long since stopped being about the content. Everyone is mainly concerned with where Newey is going, whether Jos Verstappen will punch Christian Horner in the face and what impact this will have on Max Verstappen’s career. As Jose Gonzalez sang: that’s the way, things are sometimes…most of the times….#feels.
Horner not worried about RB8 brake problem
Finally, Jos did not drive the RB8 in Austria as he had intended. Among other things, he did not feel threatened by a bad joke from Horner about the brakes of the car. Horner himself was apparently not very concerned about that. He recently got behind the wheel of one of the Red Bull cars for the first time. This in preparation for a run during the Goodwood Festival of Speed (FoS).
Stand in for Vettel
The intention was for Vettel to drive there in ‘his’ RB8. But the German is on holiday. So the team suggested ‘why don’t you do it’. Strangely enough, Horner had never done that before. You would think as a former driver with all those cars nearby that you would want to try it once. Not then, but now. Horner:
It was fun. First time driving a Red Bull car and first time with a manual clutch and two pedals. I haven’t driven a race car since 1998 and a Formula 1 car since 1993 (ed: must have been a test). It was a great honour and a great privilege to drive one of these great cars, a championship-winning car. So I’m Sebastian’s stand-in for the weekend here at Goodwood.
Christian Horner, F1 talent
Horner’s own career
It is somewhat ‘admirable’ that Horner made such a rigorous decision to stop racing himself and to stick with it. The Brit won races in the British Formula Renault championship and the B-division of the F3 championship. Eventually he ended up in F3000 (later GP2 and now F2) with his own team Arden. In two years he scored exactly one point there. In the second year in particular he had to acknowledge his superiority (big time) to southern neighbour Kurt Mollekens, who finished sixth in the final standings that year (and then also ended his active career).
For Horner, ‘the moment’ of realization came through none other than Juan Pablo Montoya. The Briton tried to follow the Colombian with a quick nod at Estoril during a test… and found that he would never be able to reach that level. From there, he decided to become a full-time team boss. The purchase of a second-hand race trailer had already brought him into contact with a certain Helmut Marko at that time. And now, Jos Verstappen on his path. Whereof note.
