Christian Horner

Who is Christian Horner? Is he what he appears, the extremely successful team principal of the best team in Formula One; a shrewd operator who has won everything and is the glue that holds the Red Bull team together.

Or is he just a yes-man, for Marko maybe, a brown-noser to Ecclestone and a surprisingly obnoxious front man for the energy drinks advertising budget.

Surely he's somewhere in between though, he must be more than an advertiser (you'd say EJ surely), but he clearly isn't calling all the shots. He's probably best characterised as F1's best young politician, not only winning the external war but managing several other big-shots and two drivers convinced by their own right to superior treatment.
 
Christian Horner I remember was a young British driver in the early 90's competing in F3 and F3000 with very little success ..I think he raced against DC and Rubens

Obviously realising he was not good enough to make it to F1 he quit racing and went into engineering/ managing racing team to end up where he is at Red Bull

In answer to your opinion...he's more towards Flavio - just happens to in the right place at the right time although the glory seems to be always either the drivers or Adrian Newey who is the real mastermind behind Red Bull's success

I'll give him credit in at least helping set up Red Bull in the first place and getting DC on board because it did look like they wanted to run Liuzzi and Klein

I find him a bit too smug like gloating about ride height and his man management experience questionable in the situations between Vettel and Webber

I thought the way he handled the Turkey and front wing situation ridiculous

He fits the Red Bull image - young looking and party loving which is the PR they want
 
As much as I want to throw primate faeces at him whenever he appears on my TV with his objectionable habit of starting every response with "Yeah, No", I actually think Mr Horner has quite a difficult task. He has to represent Brand Red Bull positively at all times, and maintain the fiction that both his drivers are treated equally, when it is patently obvious to the entire world that they are not. He also has the evil monocular presence of Dr Marko running unfettered around the team garage, who has clearly inculcated the sense in Vettel that, as a successful driver, he is the most crucial part of the team. You get the impression during his interminable interviews with Sky Sports that somewhere behind "Corporate" Christian and all his doublespeak piffle there is a Horner screaming in silent agony at not being able to say: "Look Seb, you've had 3 years of hogging all the spoils - isn't it time you let Mark play with the toys now? Oh, and by the way Helmut - I was running Arden quite successfully without you muddying the water all the bloody time!".

I think it rankles with him that, in spite of all the trophies and dominance and Britishness of the team itself, Red Bull Racing will never be as loved by the British public as Williams, Lotus, McLaren or even Ferrari - and an awful lot of that is down to his Austrian paymasters and string-pullers - he knows that everyone sees him as a puppet, even if in reality that is not the case.
 
I'm not a fan,and I dislike Helmut Marco even more.
If I'm honest there aren't many team principles that I admire.
 
There are a couple of Team Principals that I have admired over the years, I know very little about team principles.
 
The trouble that poor Christian has is that, ensconced in his den on Pitcairn Island, mediating with the outside world is slightly tricky! Talking to people through a radio mic has less empathy. The entity you see on your TV screen is but an automaton.

The true Fletcher 'Christian' Hornblower.


Sorry if I've over stepped the mark, but I couldn't help myself! I'm sure Christian Horner is a nice chap and is deserving of a sensible post from myself, but then again, I'm also sure I've had too much to drink! :oops:
 
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