Christian Horner ‘Super CEO’ rumours quashed as ‘commitment is to Red Bull’

Rumours that Christian Horner is set to step up his responsibilities within the Red Bull organisation have been shot down.

Having spent the past two months under fire for his job following the conclusion of an investigation into his behaviour as F1 team boss, Horner had been linked with a promotion within the Red Bull organisation.

Christian Horner rumoured to become ‘Super CEO’

With the investigation by Red Bull GmbH dismissed, Horner found himself at the centre of an ongoing furore as all sorts of rumours about his future at Red Bull – or potential lack of – swirled.

With both sides of Red Bull’s shareholders – the Yoovidhya family united under Chalerm Yoovidhya, as well as Mark Mateschitz with CEO Oliver Mintzlaff – lining up behind Horner as the employee who triggered the investigation into his behaviour has taken the case under appeal to the FIA, a very different rumour emerged heading into the Australian Grand Prix weekend.

Far from fighting for his job or being on shakey ground, Horner was linked with a huge promotion to become CEO of the entire Red Bull firm with the Yoovidhyas keen to give the F1 boss more responsibility within the organisation – even putting him further up the hierarchy than current CEOs Mintzlaff, Franz Watzlawick, and Alexander Kirchmayr.

Reports suggested Horner would become Red Bull’s ‘super CEO’ with powers far beyond those of the F1 team.

However, research by PlanetF1.com has resulted in the rumour being dismissed out of hand – Horner has no interest in taking on wider projects stemming from Austria that would take him away from the racing world, and his commitment remains to the F1 team first and foremost.

When approached for comment, a Red Bull spokesperson confirmed the same: “Christian’s commitment is with the team.”

With the situation at Red Bull calming as F1 turns its attention to this weekend’s Australian Grand Prix, PlanetF1.com understands talks between leading figures at Red Bull Racing held earlier this week have resulted in a cooling of tensions.

Earlier this week, Jos Verstappen suggested in an interview with Belgian media that “it will take time” for peace to be restored entirely.

As for Max Verstappen, the three-time F1 World Champion has decided he’s done talking about the off-track dramas that have dominated the news cycle since before the season even began.

“I don’t want to always be too involved with these kinds of things,” he told the media in Melbourne.

“Because at the end of the day, I’m the driver and I’m here to look at the performance side of things. That’s what I’m hired for.

“But from what I know, everything was handled in the right way. I’m not going into any further details from that side because I don’t know more than that and I also don’t want to know, because that’s not my job or my task within the team.”

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